
%wM 4/iW 



rfP^fe 



■■HMa^M^f^" 




Class BV4-15/P 

Book A*/5£- 

OopyrigM 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Chambers of the Soul 



Rev. Cornelius Woellkin. <§ 




United Society of Christian Endeavor 
Boston and Chicago 



3 



sip 



\° 



THE LIBRARY OF 
SONGRESS, 

Two Curiea Received 

JAN. H 1902 

OOP^RraMT ENTRY 

CLASS CV xXa No. 

2. 3 <? S~3 
copy a. 



Copyright, 1901, 

by the 

United Society of Christian Endeavor 



CN 



Preface. 



The following addresses were delivered 
j" at the Quiet Hour services in the Cincinnati 
ij Convention of the Young People's Society 
of Christian Endeavor. They were de- 
signed to be plain and simple index-fingers, 
suggesting what might prove a profitable 
line of meditation. To me those morning 
hours were seasons of refreshing. If these 
addresses were made a blessing to any soul, 
the praise thereof belongs to God. If in 
their printed form they shall be further 
owned of the Holy Spirit in helping the 
lives of any of my fellow laborers, the 
glory shall still be unto Him from whom 
cometh all good. My prayer for all my 
young friends is that their whole spirit, 
soul, and body may be preserved blameless 
unto the coming of the Lord. 

Cornelius Woelfkin. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



/ 



Contents. 



CHAPTER ' PAGB 

A PARABLE 7 

I. THE THRONE-ROOM AND THE KING . . I J 
II. THE JUDGMENT-HALL AND THE CHIEF 

MAGISTRATE 35 

III. THE STUDK) AND THE ARTIST .... 59 

IV. THE MUSIC-ROOM WITH ITS ORCHESTRA . 75 
V. THE HALL OF RECORDS, AND THE LI- 
BRARIAN IOI 



A PARABLE. 



A PARABLE. 

A certain nobleman named Thelema 
received from his emperor the gift of a 
kingdom. Within the boundaries of his 
province his authority was that of an 
absolute monarch over all his subjects. 
Associated with him were noblemen re- 
nowned for wisdom and ability, who were 
to constitute the cabinet in the king's court. 
Among these there was first a learned 
judge, with a reputation for integrity, 
honor, judgment, and counsel sufficient to 
guide the king amid serious and perplexing 
difficulties, and save him the embarrass- 
ment of shame, reproach, or loss. Besides 
the judge there was an artist and architect, 
whose skill was to spend itself in designing 
and decorating the king's palace and capitol. 
The other men of affairs who were to 
counsel and serve the king were a scholar 
of great attainments, whose wisdom was 
to direct the educational affairs of the 
realm and enrich the empire with stores of 
knowledge; merchants, who carried on 
commerce with the outer world, sending 
9 



io Chambers of the Soul. 

their ships upon every sea, and awaiting 
the return of each argosy with its treasure; 
musicians, who were gathered into or- 
chestras and choirs, to awaken symphonies 
and oratorios of peace, and make every 
quarter of the kingdom echo with melody 
and music; and, lastly, a master of rolls, 
whose office was that of librarian and 
historian, and to whose care the archives of 
the realm were sacredly committed. There 
was not lacking to King Thelema aught that 
would help him in establishing his king- 
dom with wisdom, righteousness, peace, 
power, and glory. 

Had King Thelema remained loyal to his 
lord, and made the glory of his sovereign 
the motive of his reign, the annals of his 
dynasty would have made a different his- 
tory in human experience. But in an evil 
hour he was tempted by vainglory and 
selfish ambition; and, yielding to subtle 
seduction, he rebelled against authority, 
and threw off all subjection to his sovereign. 
In lawlessness he sought to found his king- 
dom in independence with self-love and 
self-glory as the motive and end of all 
activities. 

It promised well. But with the king's 



A Parable. H 

rebellion the spirit of lawlessness became 
contagious, infecting all the court. Only 
the judge aspired to remain loyal and true; 
but his attitude was ridiculed, his judgment 
discredited, his argument silenced. For his 
reiterated protest against anarchy and his 
pleadings for submission he was wounded, 
persecuted, and imprisoned. The artist 
lent himself to the caprice of the wayward 
king. Soon he departed from ideals of 
purity and truth, and filled the galleries 
with designs that could only bring shame 
and reproach. The scholar broke away 
from true wisdom, and sought out many 
devices and inventions of iniquity. His 
noble gifts became prostituted in the inter- 
ests of vice and sin. The musicians became 
intoxicated with licentiousness. They lost 
the concert pitch, and, every man playing his 
own tune, in his own time, on his own key, 
soon destroyed all harmony and filled the 
place with wild discord. Merchantmen 
became pirates upon the high seas, and 
gathered booty of contraband riches. The 
master of rolls, made the recorder of foul 
doings, was compelled to receive stolen 
riches, and soon became the custodian of 
much iniquity, and the treasurer of lewd 



12 Chambers of the Soul. 

and unholy things. Everywhere the evi- 
dences of revolt and sedition betokened the 
swift decay and ruin of the kingdom. 

For a season this licentious freedom was 
exhilarating with its own novelty. But 
soon confusion wrought division and fac- 
tion. The king exercised his authority with 
a capricious spirit, and became the tool of 
selfish intrigue. Subjects suspected the 
king and one another, until every man's 
hand was against his brother, and dread 
and despair were undermining contentment 
and happiness. 

Meantime, tidings came from the great 
capitol that the sovereign was making 
inquisition into this revolution. Couriers 
came with propositions of peace on con- 
dition of submission and return to loyalty. 
Others followed, messengers of warnings 
and threats for continued revolt. Moved 
with fear and the deep sense of loss, the 
subjects desired to yield; and sometimes 
one, occasionally all, would urge upon the 
king to submit. The scholar said it was 
wise, and the judge affirmed it as right. In 
their, best moments the artist longed to be 
rid of the contamination of false ideals, 
and the musicians desired reorganization. 



A Parable. 13 

Merchantmen wished for pardon, while the 
master of rolls became anxiously weary of 
the burden of responsibility, having in his 
possession so much the discovery of which 
could only overwhelm him with confusion. 
Yet the king held out in stubborn resistance, 
threatening to bring destruction upon all the 
realm, for he alone held the key to the un- 
fortunate situation. 

Finally, in a better mood, under the 
pressure of conviction, the urgency of 
right, the constraint of a longing, and the 
fear of penalty, King Thelema decided to 
humble himself, and surrender his violated 
trust. Kneeling before his sovereign, he 
abdicated his throne, laid aside the royal 
purple, placed his crown and sceptre at the 
feet of the emperor, and for himself and 
his subjects submitted himself to the 
will of his lord. And now his sovereign, 
moved with compassion and grace, visits 
neither banishment nor punishment upon 
him, but, being reconciled, he raises him up, 
clothes him again with the apparel of roy- 
alty, and reinvests him with all forfeited 
authority and power. Thus the king with 
all his court obtains their souls' desire — a 
new beginning. 



14 Chambers of the Soul. 

But the consequences of the rebellion 
cannot be abolished in a day. The judge, 
having been wounded and clamored into 
silence, is not quite so sensitive and posi- 
tive concerning right and wrong. The 
artist finds a taint of evil among his fairest 
ideals. The scholar finds his perceptive 
faculties have become dull. The musicians 
find it difficult to maintain the concert pitch 
and avoid all discord. The merchants can- 
not check all piracy in a moment, while the 
master of rolls is continually stumbling 
upon some possession that should never 
have come under his care, and which he 
finds it difficult or impossible to banish. 
This weakness necessarily impairs the glory 
and power of the king, and within his own 
soul the rebellious spirit is not wholly dead. 
He cannot arbitrarily control what his vol- 
untary sedition impaired. 

In this crisis the emperor himself gra- 
ciously deigns to visit the kingdom and 
abide there for its reconstruction. No 
single subject is destroyed, banished, dis- 
placed, or substituted. Every one is se- 
cured in his distinctive position, and helped 
in the performance of his unique duty. 
The king's cabinet have their dwelling-place 



A Parable. 15 

in the king's palace, where the sovereign 
abides as a guest. To them he is pleased 
to grant free access and daily audience. He 
exalts the judge, enlightens the scholar, in- 
structs the artist, regulates the merchants, 
conducts the musicians, inspects and 
cleanses the library and treasury of the 
master of rolls. But his greatest delight is 
to abide in the throne-room, supporting and 
guiding the authority of the king. With 
gracious might he increases his power, and 
enthrones him in glory. In the presence 
and by the might of this lord of lords, King 
Thelema's dominion is more than restored, 
and himself and his subjects made to re- 
joice in redemptive grace. 

The key to this parable scarcely needs to be 
supplied. The kingdom is the human soul. 
In it the imagination is the artist, who fills 
the mind with ideals good or evil. Con- 
science is the judge, approving the right and 
protesting against wrong. Desires are the 
merchantmen who go abroad in the hope 
of gaining the possessions they long for. 
Emotions and affections are the musicians 
that blend in concord or clash in discord. 
Memory is the master of rolls, who acts as 
sacristan, librarian, and historian all in one. 



16 Chambers of the Soul. 

But the sovereign faculty in the human soul 
is the will. With its attitude of rebellion 
or submission all other faculties are identi- 
fied and involved. There hinges the des- 
tiny of the soul. There is the battle-ground 
where the forces of righteousness and evil 
must contend, and upon the issue turns the 
question of the soul's salvation in glory or 
its overthrow and condemnation in shame. 



!. 

THE THRONE-ROOM AND THE KING. 



Free will is essential to man, indispensable to moral 
action and to rational action as well. Consciousness 
affirms it, and conscience would have no significance if 
it did not exist. Take it away, and every man is a mere 
machine. Every man knows that he decides his own 
action and would not be a man if he did not. ... It 
is not strange that the mysteries of human life should 
suggest doubts of freedom, or that terribly convincing 
arguments against it should be possible. . . . The fact 
that freedom is set about with limits, and may be im- 
paired by evil, does not destroy its claim to be a real 
power. . . . The will is a rightful sovereign over a re- 
bellious kingdom. Its nature is still regal, but its power 
is limited by the inharmonious elements in the man 
himself. . . . What man needs is the inbreathing of a 
holy, spiritual energy that shall enable the will to teas- 
sume and hold its normal place. — W. N. Clarke. 



18 



I. 

The Throne-Room and the King. 

" It is God who worketh in you both to will and to 
work, for his good pleasure." — St. Paul. 

In exploring that wondrous palace, " the 
inner man," we come first to the throne- 
room of our being. From that mystic 
chamber issue all the activities that consti- 
tute the daily round of life. Trace the 
stream of all our doings to its secret source, 
and the springs thereof will be found pro- 
ceeding out of the throne that reigns in our 
life. There dwells the sovereign of the 
soul. There, in the first place of power, 
vested with kingly authority, ruling with 
absolute right, is the imperial faculty known 
to us as the human will. Its regency de- 
termines our conduct for time, and moulds 
our destiny for eternity. It intermingles 
with the exercises of all other faculties. 
There can be no voluntary action on the 
part of the soul that does not require the 
active co-operation of the will. No thought 
19 



20 Chambers of the Soul. 

can tarry in the mind without its consent, 
nor can it crystallize in the forms of speech 
save by its special command. No emotion 
can abide in the heart unless voluntarily en- 
tertained, nor can the strongest feelings 
focalize into action apart from will's specific 
sanction. It is true that there is a subtle 
something that we have named "disposi- 
tion," which exercises a crafty influence in 
every department of the soul's activity. 

Sometimes we are tempted to make our 
general bent the scapegoat of our miscon- 
duct. But disposition is not a distinctive 
faculty. It is that tendency which grows 
out of the convergent activities of all the 
faculties. It is the moral atmosphere of the 
soul which may be beneficial or deleterious. 
The co-operation of all the faculties consti- 
tutes the mind, and the tendency thereof the 
spirit of the mind. We are commanded to 
be renewed in the spirit of our mind; but 
this assumes that the faculties themselves 
have been subject to the power of regener- 
ating grace. In the last analysis we find 
the authority of responsible life resident in 
the will. 

The will is sovereign because it exercises 
the attributes of lordship over all other 



The Throne-Room and the King. 21 

faculties. Each faculty in the soul has its 
own unique function, but it has no play in 
life without the consent and co-operation of 
the will. The conscience may utter its ver- 
dicts concerning right and wrong, good and 
evil ; but unless the will carries out these 
edicts they become worse than dead letters, 
and conscience sinks into a void factor in 
life. Imagination may catch sight of the 
truest ideals ; yet, if the will does not re- 
solve to pursue and apprehend them, the 
visions fade and vanish. The emotions 
may be keyed to the noblest acts of self- 
sacrifice; but, if the will fails to strike 
them into immediate action, they soon lose 
the tension of Christlike sympathy. And 
thus we might run through the entire cata- 
logue of human faculties, only to find that 
their latent powers are dwarfed or devel- 
oped in exact proportion to the will's use 
or abuse of their lawful exercise. If the 
will co-operates with the respective exer- 
cises of the several faculties, they serve to 
develop a full-rounded character. But, if 
they be denied their lawful function through 
the will's inertia, they must deteriorate. 
They cannot help themselves; they are 
subject to the sovereignty of the will. 



22 Chambers of the Soul. 

We speak of the will as fundamental, be- 
cause we discover it behind every activity 
of mind and body. We cannot go further 
into the mysterious palace of the soul than 
the throne-room. We discover nothing 
deeper than the will. It marshals all mo- 
tives, and starts them into action, or holds 
them inert. It summons all thoughts, and 
drives them backward through memory, or 
forward through imagination. It com- 
mands them to bury themselves in silence, 
or go abroad in the garments of speech. 
It inspects all emotions, desires, and affec- 
tions, sealing them with approval, or con- 
demning them with reprobation. It moves 
in the secret depths of the soul, and reigns 
in the outer court of visible acts. All the do- 
ings of life may be explained by the voli- 
tions of the will, but we cannot explain the 
secret power that moves within or behind 
it. It works within all other faculties and 
they' work upon it. The will is the pri- 
mary thing in personality. It lies at the 
foundation of responsibility, and there we 
are at the base-line of character. 

The strength of the will determines the 
force of personality. Its weakness or vigor 
becomes the gauge by which we estimate 



The Throne-Room and the King. 23 

character. It is not a vivid imagination, 
nor a sensitive conscience, nor right de- 
sires, nor retentive memory, that measure 
a man's feebleness or power. Only what 
the will resolves and performs decides what 
a man really is. The development of some 
one faculty may constitute genius, but not 
character. A poet may be visited by visions 
of virtue, grace, and truth, and yet live in a 
liaison with vice, corruption, and delusion. 
A man may have sufficient strength of 
reason to analyze and classify the phe- 
nomena of nature; he may be voted an as- 
tute philosopher, and yet be an evil man. 
Sensitive and sympathetic emotions are 
often dragged down by the curse of in- 
temperance. History affords abundant il- 
lustrations of men who have been reputed 
great in arts and science, musicians, artists, 
poets, philosophers, jurists, and literati, 
men famed as geniuses in every depart- 
ment of physical and metaphysical learning, 
who have, despite their erudition, made ship- 
wreck of character. Genius without purity 
of purpose and virility of will is one of the 
saddest spectacles of life. How many 
noble ideals lie shattered about an ener- 
vated will! The fault was not with the 



24 Chambers of the Soul. 

soul's artist. Imagination painted great 
possibilities on the horizon of hope, but an 
indolent will allowed them to fade and dis- 
solve. The defect was not in the soul's 
judge. Conscience interpreted a holy law, 
but a sluggish will declined to establish it 
in action. Emotions pleaded for right, and 
the understanding gave wise counsel, but 
the soul's sovereign was paralyzed with the 
luxury of sinful indulgence, and weakly 
sighed its "No." 

On the other hand, men of very mediocre 
gifts have become potent factors for good 
in human society. There are men whom 
nature has not endowed with remarkable 
talent, whom heredity has denied the quick- 
ened pulse of cleverness, and whose cir- 
cumstances gave little room for the devel- 
opment of mental qualities and latent apti- 
tude. They will never rank as men of 
genius, and yet they make great contribu- 
tions to the moral forces that make for right- 
eousness. The great secret of their power 
lies in a simple but mighty method. They 
are resolved that such ideals as the mind 
apprehends the will must translate into 
actual life, and the principles of right as 
they understand them must become the 



The Throne-Room and the King. 25 

immediate rule of conduct. The will is 
the strong thing with them, and everything 
which the other faculties discover, appre- 
hend, and approve they resolve to turn to 
profitable account. There is no sight more 
worthy of challenging admiration than a 
soul of mediocre endowment making the 
most of every possibility, and by the sov- 
ereign exercise of a firm resolve turning to 
use every opportunity for the enrichment 
of character. The reward of such fidelity 
is as great to the man with two talents as 
to him that hath five. 

It must be evident from our consideration 
of the place and power of the will that the 
first and essential yielding of the soul to 
God must take place in the throne-room of 
our being. The will must submit its re- 
gency to the authority of God. All the 
other faculties dwell in chambers adjoining 
the throne-room, but from none of these 
can access be obtained to the whole man. 
All the bolts are on the inside. The various 
compartments may be so locked from one 
another that the entrance of God's Spirit 
into one is by no means a guaranty that the 
whole palace is open to his grace. But, 
when once the will draws the bolt of the 



26 Chambers of the Soul. 

soul's citadel, and surrenders its sceptre of 
authority to God's will, his Spirit may freely 
enter every chamber of the heart, and work 
in it both to will and to work for his good 
pleasure. If, therefore, the will is yielded 
to God, the whole man is reconciled and 
consecrated; whereas, if he is shut out 
from this centre, the whole man is in alien- 
ation and rebellion. 

From the human side the first duty of 
man is to surrender the will to God. From 
the divine side the first thing is the con- 
version of the will. What do we mean by 
the conversion of the will ? Though sov- 
ereign, the will must act in the interests of 
righteousness or sin. Sin makes its appeal 
through fleshly appetites and carnal craving. 
If the will yields to the temptation of un- 
lawfully indulging the bodily desires, it 
soon loses the power to control them; and 
then, instead of being a sovereign, it falls 
to the place of being a servant. In the 
sinful man the will is a Samson shorn of 
his strength, blinded in vision, harnessed to 
passion, and made to grind out fleshly 
gratification in the mill of sinful habit. 
Desires, made to be servants, leap into the 
throne, and rule the soul and spirit. But 



The Throne-Room and the King. 27 

even in its dishonored condition the will 
has ever a place of refuge. With all its 
weakness, shame, and sinfulness, it may 
flee into the presence of God, and yield 
itself to his sovereign might. Renouncing 
the service of the hidden works of dark- 
ness, it is accepted by God in the service of 
righteousness and truth. In its surrender 
the will yields all its members to be instru- 
ments of righteousness. The will repre- 
sents and acts for the whole man. In the 
reconciliation the Lord covenants the re- 
establishment of the will as sovereign of 
the soul. And, though its supremacy may 
be questioned and opposed by appetites 
made strong in sinful habit, yet it hence- 
forth occupies the throne as the vicegerent 
of God, and exercises lordship in the inter- 
ests of his kingdom and glory. 

The second thing from the human side is 
a steadfast, continual submission of the 
will to the will of God. From the divine 
side this abiding in the will of God is met 
with new supplies of daily strength, en- 
abling the soul to live well pleasing to the 
Father. Even in the converted soul the will 
is impaired and relatively weak. Servitude 
in the bondage of sin has left its marks 



28 Chambers of the Soul. 

that cannot be effaced at once. The tyr- 
anny of sin, established through habit, is 
not easily broken. Again and again the 
soul feels itself slipping back into captivity 
because the will cannot successfully resist 
the invasion of temptations once indulged. 
At such times the tortured soul may adopt 
the words of Paul as expressing its own ex- 
perience, — "The good which I would I do 
not, but the evil which I would not, that I 
practise. I find then the law that to me, 
who would do good, evil is present. For I 
delight in the law of God after the inward 
man, but I see a different law in my mem- 
bers warring against the law of my mind, 
and bringing me into captivity under the 
law of sin which is in my members. O 
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver 
me out of the body of this death ?" This 
lament is the Miserere of one who feels the 
inadequacy of a rightly disposed but weak- 
ened will to triumph over the forces of evil. 
Some habit overtakes it and carries it away 
captive. Or some duty confronts it, and it 
cannot find the strength to rise and do it. 
It desires the good; it knows the right; it 
approves the ideal; but, when it comes to 
the doing, it falters and halts with weakness. 



The Throne-Room and the King. 29 

The resource of an enfeebled will is a 
yielding of itself to God that he may vitalize 
it with power. He will strengthen it, not by 
the impartation of some abstract force; but, 
passing himself into the will, he makes it 
the channel of his might working in it both 
to will and to work according to his 
working which worketh mightily. By this 
method our will becomes the agent of God's 
will, re-inforced with his great power. 

The Lord Jesus Christ had a human will, 
but it was so wholly subjected to the pur- 
poses of God that it became the instrument 
of doing the good pleasure of his Father. 
Touch his life at any point you please, and 
you will invariably find that the will of 
God was the motive power that worked in 
and by his own will. As a lad sitting in 
the temple among the doctors he affirms, 
"I must be about my Father's business." 
He explains the purpose of his incarnation 
in the words, " I came down from heaven, 
not to do my own will, but the will of 
him that sent me." He justifies the 
wisdom and authority of his ministry, say- 
ing, "My judgment is just because I seek 
not mine own will, but the will of the 
Father which hath sent me." So absorbed 



30 Chambers of the Soul. 

was he with the passion of his spiritual 
ministry that even bodily appetites failed to 
warn him of necessary food. And, when 
his disciples pressed him, saying, "Master, 
eat," he answered: "I have meat to eat 
that ye know not . . . My meat is to 
do the will of him that sent me, and to ac- 
complish his work." Follow him into the 
secret sanctuary of devotion, and his 
worship sums up in the prayer, " I delight 
to do thy will, O my God." See him in 
the great crisis of his agony, and still we 
hear the same words, "Not my will, but 
thine, be done." In the throne-room of 
his being God was exalted. 

His will was so rooted in the will of God, 
and God's will so vitalizing his will, that 
no possible scrutiny could distinguish be- 
tween them. They became fused into one. 
And so perfectly did the will of Christ ex- 
press and execute the will of the Father 
that, if they had exchanged places, the 
Father coming into Christ's humiliation, 
and Christ ascending into the Father's 
glory, there would have been no difference 
in a single detail. Every word and work 
would stand exactly as they do to-day. 
Indeed, he so perfectly wrought the will of 



The Throne-Room and the King. 31 

God that he could say: " The words that I 
say unto you I speak not from myself: 
but the Father abiding in me doeth his 
works. . . . My Father worketh even until 
now, and I work . . . The Son can do 
nothing of himself but what he seeth the 
Father doing: for what things soever he 
doeth, these the Son also doeth in like 
manner." Because their wills were iden- 
tical, he lived by the Father and the Father 
lived in him. 

Were we to study the utterances of the 
apostles concerning the mysteries of their 
mighty ministries, we should come upon 
the identical secret, so clearly manifest in 
the life of Jesus. The words at the head of 
this chapter give the formula of Christian 
dynamics. It is God who works in us. A 
magnet has but little native power: yet, 
when it becomes charged with the current 
of electric energy, its lifting power becomes 
increased and manifolded. So the will of 
man, even though regenerate, may lack 
virility and strength ; but, if it be yielded as 
an instrument to God and be made the cur- 
rent of the divine will, it will be strength- 
ened with might by his Spirit. God will 
work in it to will. That is, he will re-en- 



32 Chambers of the Soul. 

force its power of decision. It will not 
oscillate between the pleadings of the flesh 
and the demands of the Spirit. Its choice 
will turn Godward as readily as the mag- 
netic needle turns toward the north; and, 
having chosen, its resolve is fixed, for God 
is working in the choice. Then he further 
works to execute the will's election. He 
constrains every energy, and nerves the soul 
to do. Having wrought his choice in the 
will, he next works his purposes through 
it. St. Paul experienced this when he said, 
"I labor also, striving according to his 
working, which worketh in me mightily." 

Spiritual power, then, is not an abstract 
gift, nor can it be measured by weight, di- 
mension, or velocity as we measure nature's 
forces. It is an attribute of God. And 
since an attribute cannot be separated from 
the source in which it inheres, it follows 
that God cannot give us his power apart 
from giving himself. The surrender and 
submission of the will opens the gateway 
of life for his entrance. And while he has 
light for the conscience, wisdom for the 
understanding, love for the emotions, and 
renewal for the disposition, yet his power 
manifests itself in the throne-room where 



The Throne-Room and the King. 33 

he delights to exalt and support the sover- 
eignty of the will. If, then, this faculty is 
under his control, it is God who works 
behind all, who builds at the base-line of 
character, who moulds in us the image of 
his Son, and works by us the labor that 
shall ultimately be our crown of glory. 



II. 



THE JUDGMENT-HALL AND THE CHIEF 
MAGISTRATE. 



Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak 
His powerful sound with an organ weak. 

— Shakespeare, 

While each of our senses or appetites has a restricted 
sphere of operation, it is the function of conscience to 
survey the whole constitution of our being, and assign 
limits to the gratification of all our various passions and 
desires ; ... for to conscience is assigned the preroga- 
tive of both judging and restraining them all. Its 
power may be insignificant, but its title is undisputed ; 
and, " if it had might as it has right, it would govern 
the world." It is this faculty, distinct from and superior 
to all appetites, passions, and tastes, that makes virtue 
the supreme law of life, and adds an imperative char- 
acter to the feeling of attraction it inspires. It is this 
which was described by Cicero as the God ruling within 
us; by the Stoics, as the sovereignty of reason; by 
St. Paul, as the law of nature; by Butler, as the su- 
premacy of conscience. — Lecky. 



36 



II. 

The Judgment-Hall and the Chief 
Magistrate. 

" Herein do I also exercise myself, to have a con- 
science void of offence towards God and men alway." — 
St. Paul. 

From the throne-room with its majestic 
beauty we turn to visit and inspect the 
soul's judgment-hall. Here we behold an- 
other faculty, exalted by undisputed right 
to the function of judging the moral 
qualities of life's issues. Controversy may 
gather about the claim of the divine right 
of kings, but no dispute can ever succeed 
in disproving the divine right of conscience. 
It may be dishonored and denied its consti- 
tutional supremacy, but it will never abdi- 
cate its God-given place in the human 
soul. So long as it lives its utterances will 
be with uncompromising authority. And, 
when the character and conduct of man 
come before God for final judgment, con- 
science will approve the decree that fixes 
37 



38 Chambers of the Soul. 

the eternal destiny of the soul. It is, there- 
fore, of vital moment that we make a con- 
science void of offence the aim of every 
action. 

Very solemn powers are vested in the 
chief magistrate who sits at the head of 
the nation's judiciary. He represents the 
last court of appeal, and his decisions be- 
come law. Decrees of lower tribunals he 
may reverse or confirm; motions he may 
grant or deny; sentences he may sanction 
or set aside. His is the final word of judg- 
ment, mandate, and law. His decisions 
must stand as differentiating right and 
wrong. There is a majesty pertaining to 
the chief justice which sovereign and sub- 
ject, squire and serf, must acknowledge. 
Subjection to his authority and opposition 
to it are the moulds in which a nation's 
order and anarchy are fashioned. 

Conscience is the chief justice in the soul 
of man. The function of this faculty is to 
recognize the difference between right and 
wrong, and so become the lawgiver to all 
other faculties. The secrets of the heart, 
all motives, desires, ambitions, and imagi- 
nations, must pass under the scrutiny of 
conscience. Its counsel should give direc- 



The Judgment-Hall. 39 

tion to all conduct and conversation, its 
secret chambers be the moulding-place of 
all experience. To its authority every fac- 
ulty must accord the supreme place. The 
order or anarchy of the soul hinges upon 
the place we give to conscience. Peace or 
tumult of experience waits upon our sub- 
jection to its right of rule or rebellion 
against it. Upon its walls are ever written 
the verdicts, "Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant," or "Weighed in the balances, 
and found wanting." Eternal destiny turns 
upon the soul's loyalty to the demands and 
light of conscience. The empire of the 
soul will achieve glory or disaster as it 
waits in loyalty upon the jurisdiction of 
this chief magistrate, conscience. 

We cannot enter upon the vast literature 
embodying the various philosophies con- 
cerning the nature and function of this 
faculty. We must come at once to that 
phase of the subject which may be con- 
sidered from the view-point of experience. 
Man, created in the image of God, has a 
knowledge that discerns the difference be- 
tween good and evil in motive, between 
right and wrong in action. Whatever 



40 Chambers of the Soul. 

blight has fallen upon the faculties through 
sin, or however this particular faculty may 
have become impaired, it is still there. 
Even under the most unfavorable circum- 
stances, man has sufficient knowledge to 
make him morally responsible. The law 
of God is written in the conscience, and 
therefore it is God's counsellor in the soul. 
It is not a faculty created by education or 
acquired by experience. It is "native 
here, and to the manner born." It is that 
mystic voice of which Isaiah writes, "When 
ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn 
to the left," "thine ears shall hear a word 
behind thee, saying, This is the way; walk 
ye in it." Behind all the clamor of im- 
perious desire, the tumult of swelling pas- 
sion, the specious pleading of emotion, and 
the sophistry of reason conscience ever 
speaks as a witness of God in the soul. 
The image of God may be blurred almost 
beyond recognition; yet, wherever man is 
found, the regal nature of conscience is 
attested. 

Among the heathen and barbarous tribes 
of earth we find religions very wide of the 
truth; yet the very compulsion to worship 
somewhat and the morbid sense that drives 



The Judgment-Hall. 41 

to sacrifices revolting both witness the pres- 
ence and stern demands of conscience. The 
shades of variety and degrees of sensitive- 
ness may be endless, but the solemn sense, 
"I ought," dwells in every human heart. 
The great diversity and gradations of con- 
science may be partly explained by envi- 
ronment, education, training, obedience, and 
other incidental causes and modifying cir- 
cumstances. The Scriptures recognize such 
degrees and differences. By the develop- 
ment of revelation, the progress of responsi- 
bility, and the education of the conscience 
they are ever pushing duty to a higher 
notch. But all this has to do with the 
judgment of the conscience; it does not 
affect the nature of the faculty or its or- 
ganic function in the constitution of the 
soul. Its judgment may be confused by a 
thousand delusions, but its sense of obliga- 
tion abides loyal to God. 

We may summarize the essence and office 
of this spiritual sense by saying that it is 
the law of God written in the constitution 
of man. As faith lays hold upon the 
knowledge of God through revelation, so 
conscience lays hold upon the will of God 
through the sense of obligation. It is the 



42 Chambers of the Soul. 

faculty which lies nearest to God. It is the 
avenue by which he finds access to the 
soul, convicts it of sin and shortcoming, 
and drives it to the throne of grace for sal- 
vation. It is the alphabet of God's language 
with man. Master it, and you have the 
key to the mysteries of his wisdom and 
grace, and by it you may attain a fellow- 
ship with him in holiness and glory. It 
has a vocabulary of four simple words: 
good and evil, right and wrong. Amid 
the duties of life these will admit of great 
variety in declension and conjugation, but 
they four constitute the elements of its 
vernacular. With these it moves among 
the desires, and proclaims them spiritual 
or carnal. It enters the studio of the im- 
agination, pronouncing its visions pure or 
defiled. It criticises the orchestra of emo- 
tions, judging the feelings as true or false. 
It treads the very throne-room; and, stand- 
ing before the sovereign will, it approves 
every right motive, saying, "Thou doest 
well that it is in thine heart," or boldly 
denounces every evil, crying, "It is not 
lawful for thee" to do thus. 

It is of greatest moment that conscience 
should be illuminated in judgment as well 



The Judgment-Hall. 43 

as obeyed in its compulsions. The first 
thing in the development of conscience is 
loyalty to its constraining impulses. It may 
be so trained and developed through fidelity 
to its promptings as to become a perfect 
legislator for God in all the activities of life. 
Or it may be abused, debauched, and seared 
until its light is put out and the very sense 
of obligation decays. In the one case the 
soul ever sails on the tide that moves to- 
wards the throne of God, and comes at last 
to anchor in the glory of his perfect will; 
in the other it drifts amid temptations, 
making shipwreck of faith, sinking beneath 
the "wild waves of the sea, foaming out 
their own shame, ... for whom the 
blackness of darkness hath been reserved 
forever." When the will is obedient to the 
voice of conscience, there will not be lack- 
ing floods of light for its illumination. 
" Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowl- 
edge." "If any man willeth to do his 
will, he shall know of the teaching, 
whether it be of God." That is to say, 
loyalty to the sense of doing God's will 
shall be rewarded by such enlightenment of 
judgment that there will be no doubt as to 
what that will is and how it must be done. 



44 Chambers of the Soul. 

Paul's experience will serve as an illustra- 
tion here. From his forefathers he served 
God in a pure conscience. Even that 
never-forgotten chapter of his life, in which 
he describes himself as a " blasphemer and 
a persecutor and injurious," was enacted 
under the sense of a good conscience. Re- 
hearsing this part of his career before 
Agrippa, he says, "I verily thought with 
myself that I ought to do many things con- 
trary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." 
His judgment was sadly astray, while his 
sense of duty was true. Following that 
sense of " I ought," he soon met with the 
light that corrected his "I thought." A 
heavenly vision rose within his conscience; 
and, following the new light with the same 
vigor of duty, he became the foremost 
apostle of Christianity. Resolve upon do- 
ing the will of God at any cost, and some 
heavenly vision will soon direct you into 
the knowledge of what his will is. " When 
conscience wakes and speaks, it means 
that man is in spiritual contact with God, 
that God is making his will felt in the 
depths of man's constitution." Then God 
is on the throne; let all else keep silence. 
" The lamp of thy body is thine eye: when 



The Judgment-Hall. 45 

thine eye is single, thy whole body also is 
full of light; but when it is evil, thy body 
also is full of darkness. Look, therefore, 
whether the light that is in thee be not 
darkness. If, therefore, thy whole body 
be full of light, having no part dark, it 
shall be wholly full of light, as when the 
lamp with its bright shining doth give thee 
light." This is Christ's parable describing 
the conscience. It is the eye of the soul, 
designed to let the light of God's truth and 
will flood the entire being. To keep it 
single means to be loyal to its sense of ob- 
ligation and diligent in the cultivation of its 
judgment. 

When we fail to maintain a conscience 
void of offence, it must become a nemesis 
to our wrong-doing. What a blackened 
track its retributions evidence, as we read 
the career of sinners whose history is writ- 
ten in the .Scriptures! Adam trembling 
with fear seeks to hide himself from God. 
Amid the shades of Eden's garden he hears 
the challenge, "Where art thou?" What 
is his answer ? " I heard thy voice in the 
garden, and I was afraid, because I was 
naked; and I hid myself." Who told him 
that he was naked ? Conscience. There 



46 Chambers of the Soul. 

was the first outcry of the soul's wounded 
judge. How much wretchedness lay latent 
in his fear, flight, and confession! All the 
Miserere of human repentance and remorse, 
all the groaning sorrows of history, had 
their beginning in that moan of Adam's 
wounded conscience, "I was naked." It 
was the orphaned soul fearing and fleeing 
from God. When Jacob's sons stood be- 
fore the ruler of Egypt, he accused them of 
being spies. They honestly repudiated the 
charge. Then why did they shudder in 
dismay ? Out of that forgotten yesterday, 
conscience was dragging a far graver in- 
dictment, while "they said one to another, 
We are verily guilty concerning our brother, 
in that we saw the distress of his soul 
when he besought us, and we would not 
hear." When David's indignation was 
roused by the recital of an imaginary inci- 
dent, the prophet threw his angry outburst 
back upon himself, saying, "Thou art the 
man." Why did he not resent the audac- 
ity of Nathan, and deliver him to the jailer's 
care ? Because conscience lifted the veil of 
his innermost soul, exposed the skeleton of 
his closet, pointed out the hideous corrup- 
tion of his heart, and wrung from him the 



The Judgment-Hall. 47 

wail, "I have sinned." What drove the 
widow into Elijah's presence with the un- 
bidden confession, " O thou man of God, 
thou art come unto me to bring my sin to 
remembrance " ? What made Herod trem- 
ble at the reports concerning Jesus, and 
whisper his fearful suspicion, "It is John 
whom I beheaded; he is risen from the 
dead " ? What agony of despair was it that 
groaned in the demoniacs' "Art thou come 
hither to torment us before the time?" 
What remorseful power hurried Judas back 
with his blood-money, and, when he had 
avowed his betrayal of innocent blood, 
dragged him into the maelstrom of despair 
and self-murder ? The answer to all such 
questioning is, The nemesis of conscience. 
There is no escape from the working of 
this mysterious faculty. The soul may 
slight, ignore, and silence this monitor; but 
it ever follows in the wake of man's doings, 
and its very muteness is eloquent with re- 
buke. It may be finally insulted; and then, 
instead of being a counsellor in the soul, its 
mockery is echoed from every incident, cir- 
cumstance, and situation of life. Man may 
try to kill it as did Herod behead the Bap- 
tist. But still it ever rises from the grave 



48 Chambers of the Soul. 

with the burden of heavier crimes than be- 
fore. Every man carries his own tribunal 
within his own breast. Even in this life 
conscience erects a judgment-seat, and 
makes the guilty tremble at their own sin. 
The blood-stain of Scotland's murdered king 
was so deep and foul on the souls of Mac- 
beth and his wife that all the waters of the 
sea or the sweet perfumes of Arabia could 
not serve to sweeten or cleanse away their 
guilt. Conscience made of him a coward. 
Every noise appalled him; every imagina- 
tion had the spectre of a ghost. He dared 
not walk the halls of memory. He could 
only shudder on their threshold with the 
cry, "I am afraid to think what I have 
done; look on't again, I dare not." Rich- 
ard III. in the blackness of his guilt found 
that "conscience is a thousand swords, 
. . . the worm that still begnaws the soul." 
It had a thousand several tongues that pro- 
claimed him for a villain. It gathered up 
his misdeeds, and sent them beforehand to 
judgment; and, as they crowded about 
God's throne, crying, "Guilty, guilty," con- 
science echoed deep in his own soul, " De- 
spair and die." So, then, even in this life 
sins have found their authors out. Even 



The Judgment-Hall. 49 

here the judgment of eternity has been an- 
ticipated, as the guilty soul has heard the 
words, 

" The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor ; 
With Cain go wander through the shade of night." 

And, when the issues of life appear for final 
trial, conscience must turn State's evidence. 
At its bidding memory will bring the care- 
fully preserved record of sin and shame; 
imagination must reveal the secret ideals of 
corruption; affections will own their un- 
holy liaisons; desires expose their contra- 
band lusts, and the captive will come forth 
like a blind Samson, enslaved, uncrowned, 
and its regal force debauched in the service. 
Conscience is the sounding-board of eter- 
nity. If we would avoid the thunders of 
final doom, let us maintain it void of small 
offences now. 

A good conscience is no less mighty than 
an evil one. Its ability to approve and 
justify is no less than its power to accuse 
and condemn. The heroes of faith whose 
valorous deeds are exploited in the epistle 
to the Hebrews all had witness borne unto 
them that they pleased God. The con- 



50 Chambers of the Soul. 

sciousness of doing the will of God made 
the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and reform- 
ers invincible. When God said to Jesus, 
"Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am 
well pleased," it was a good conscience 
that sounded the joy of the Lord through 
his being. Conscience does not make 
cowards of us all. A bad conscience makes 
a craven. A good conscience makes a hero 
whom nothing daunts in life or death, who 
has no fear for time or eternity. Examine 
the world's benefactors of any age; explore 
the foundations of their strength; and be- 
yond all the combinations of singular op- 
portunity, behind the glitter of brilliant 
genius, and beneath the force of unique in- 
dividuality you will find that the strength 
of character, augmented by divine wisdom 
and power, builds itself upon a good con- 
science void of offence towards God and 
men. Such a conscience catches up all the 
promises of grace, and incarnates them in 
life and conduct. It becomes the holy of 
holies in the soul, where the presence of 
the Lord dwells. It has a transfiguring 
power. The Holy Spirit can radiate 
through a good conscience and make mani- 
fest the life of Christ in us as the hope of 



The Judgment-Hall. 51 

glory. It is the pure heart that sees God, 
and, beholding his glory, is transformed 
into the same image from glory to glory. 

Since gaining a good conscience must be 
the ambition of every exercise in the daily 
life, how may we come by this priceless 
treasure ? There are three distinct stages in 
the process. It must be obtained, retained, 
and attained. As an obtainment we can 
have a conscience void of offence towards 
God only through the assurance of the for- 
giveness of our sins. The sense of obliga- 
tion and accountability convicts us of sin- 
fulness, and conscience can never absolve 
us from the transgressions of our yester- 
days. We must kneel at the foot of Cal- 
vary's cross, and by simple faith receive the 
remission of our sins. There the revelation 
breaks into our darkened hearts, and we 
learn that "God made him who knew no 
sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him." 
There "the blood of Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered himself without 
blemish unto God, cleanses our conscience 
from dead works." And, as the soul in the 
consciousness of its cleansing worships the 
Lord, the night passes, the day dawns, and 



52 Chambers of the Soul. 

shadows are fled away; there is no more 
conscience of sins. God having spoken his 
gracious pardon, the soul may wipe out of 
the memory every stain of past transgres- 
sion. It may confidently turn its back upon 
all the yesterdays, and forget the things 
that are behind in the divine assurance that 
" there is now no condemnation to them 
that are in Christ Jesus." 

A good conscience is retained by owning 
the supremacy of its authority in all the de- 
tails of life. It is by means of our physical 
nature that we have commerce with the 
world about us. There on the lowest 
plane of our nature dwell the appetites of 
the body. The limit of their necessary 
indulgence is put to the strain; and, if they 
are humored beyond what is meet, an ab- 
normal craving tends to thrust them into 
the place of mastery instead of abiding in 
service. On the intellectual plane we have 
capacities for the acquirement of wisdom 
and knowledge. These are meant to serve 
us for our greatest profit. Yet they, too, 
may be enticed from purity of purpose and 
made the forces serving pride and carnal 
ambition. On the plane of the spiritual 
nature we have the moral instincts which 



The Judgment-Hall. 53 

impose responsibility and obligation. These 
all must find exercise in subjection to the 
conscience. "If the motions of the flesh are 
given play irrespective of the laws of con- 
science, if thoughts and imaginations are 
allowed to run riot through the mind instead 
of being brought captive to Christ in the 
conscience, then the anarchy of sin must 
work death in the soul. 

In the city of Edinburgh the famous 
castle towers above all other sections of the 
city. At the exact second of the noon hour 
a gun is fired from the castle, indicating the 
royal time. As the sound rolls over the 
city, there is an instinctive comparison of 
watches and clocks with the royal time. 
The utmost confusion would reign if there 
were no regulation by a standard time. If 
every individual insisted upon ignoring 
the royal time, and conducted his duties 
upon a schedule determined by the erratic 
movement of his own little watch, com- 
merce would tumble into disorder, railroads 
meet with disaster, homes be inconveni- 
enced, and regularity be obstructed. In 
the matter of time the royal gun must be 
given the supreme place and all details of 
life must be ordered accordingly. Even so 



54 Chambers of the Soul. 

a good conscience is retained only as we 
"make conscience of all things." Every 
other faculty must be subservient thereto. 
The will must execute its demands, the 
imagination be governed by its light, the 
emotions submit to its verdicts, and the 
memory treasure its commendations. With 
such a place, conscience may move through 
all the chambers of the soul, and be re- 
tained without offence towards God and 
men. 

A good conscience must be attained by 
the enlightenment and education of its 
judgment. It is at this point that con- 
science needs to be strengthened with 
might by God's Spirit. Its "I thought" 
must become as unerring as its "I ought." 
A strong sense of responsibility without an 
accurate knowledge of duty will make a 
blind giant. It needs vision as well as 
strength. Feeling the necessity of doing 
God's will, and yet ignorant of what his 
will is, an unenlightened conscience may 
compel the soul to fight against God under 
the very supposition that it is fighting for 
him. Such were Saul and his kinsmen 
Jews; they had a zeal of God, but not 
according to knowledge. There is such a 



The Judgment-Hall 55 

conscience in all fanaticism, good in its 
sense of oughtness, but helplessly astray in 
its judgment. 

To attain knowledge, there must first be 
loyalty to the sense of obligation. In fol- 
lowing this sense we may and shall make 
mistakes through ignorance, but in so doing 
we are fulfilling the condition upon which 
light is promised. God will not leave in 
ignorance the soul that honestly seeks to do 
his will. The education of conscience is 
conditioned on practising that which we 
already know; studying the Scriptures, 
which reveal God's purposes of grace; and 
communing with him in the fellowship of 
prayer. In this regard a conscience may be 
good, better, and best according to the 
ratio of its knowledge of the will of God. 
As the light of truth pours into its judg- 
ment, the sense of "I ought" is deepened. 
And, as the sense of duty responds to the 
knowledge attained, it preserves its good- 
ness void of offence. By such exercise its 
discernment becomes ever more acute, and 
the sense of moral flavor more perceptive. 
A growing conscience will ever make larger 
resignations and sacrifices. It will not stop 
at putting away doubtful indulgences, but 



56 Chambers of the Soul. 

in its holy ambition to be most pleasing to 
God a rich conscience will resign lawful 
privileges to obtain the pearl of greatest 
price. Its aspiration will become less and 
less occupied with what may be displeas- 
ing, and more and more absorbed with 
what is most pleasing to God. 

As the conscience attains a deeper knowl- 
edge of God's will, it will become necessary 
to exercise great patience and sympathy 
with those who are weak in the faith. My 
brother may allow what my conscience con- 
demns. But let me not lose patience with 
him who halts for ten weeks where I 
stumbled ten long years. Let me rather 
pray and hope not that he may blindly 
jump to my position, but that he may 
receive light by which he may come there 
in wisdom and power. On the other hand, 
my brother may draw a line where I exer- 
cise indulgence. I may not accuse him of 
narrowness. He may be in advance of me, 
and I may some day stand at his place and 
judge my present position very inferior. 
Let every man be persuaded in his own 
mind, and let all walk according to the law 
of love. We may not compromise our loy- 



The Judgment-Hall. 57 

alty to the highest demands of conscience, 
but we may act in such love that the weak- 
est brother shall not stumble over our 
scruples. If, on the other side, we find 
liberty to act beyond another's knowledge, 
love should prompt us to forego such free- 
dom for his sake. Were he to exercise our 
freedom without our faith, he would be 
sinning against his sense of oughtness, and 
in so doing destroy his own soul. Better 
restrain our freedom to the bounds of his 
knowledge than by transgressing wound 
the monitor of God within him. 

A good conscience is not one that through 
innocence has no sense of past sin, nor one 
that has lost it through f orgetf ulness. A good 
conscience is one that was washed from its 
sin in the blood of Jesus Christ, is saved from 
sin by the supremacy of its authority, and is 
triumphant over sin by enlightenment and 
conquest. It lies with us whether this chief 
magistrate of the soul shall be to us a curse 
or a blessing. We may set him at naught, 
silence, wound, brand, imprison him. But 
some day he will rise with retribution in his 
train. Then will he visit upon us the sins 
which we had forgotten, and make us cry 
out our own shame while every voice of 



58 Chambers of the Soul. 

memory mocks at our despair. We may 
enthrone, honor, serve, and obey his au- 
thority. Then will he guide, counsel, and 
comfort us. And, when at last life's trials, 
duties, and temptations are all over, this 
judge will assume the priest's mitre, and 
come forth to echo the approval and 
benediction of our God. In the light of his 
glory we shall find that conscience was 
ever the guest-chamber where God de- 
lighted to dwell. Let us exercise ourselves 
to keep it void of offence; so shall our Re- 
deemer be enthroned as Lord of our being. 

" Stern lawgiver ! Yet dost thou wear 
The Godhead's most benignant grace ; 
Nor know we anything so fair 
As is the smile upon thy face." 

— Wordsworth. 



III. 

THE STUDIO AND THE ARTIST. 



Physical investigation, more than anything besides, 
helps to teach us the actual value and right use of 
the imagination, . . . that wondrous faculty which, 
. . . properly controlled by experience and reflec- 
tion, becomes the noblest attribute of man, the 
source of poetic genius, the instrument of discovery to 
science ; without the aid of which Newton would never 
have invented fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the 
earths and alkalis, nor would Columbus have found an- 
other continent. . . . We find ourselves gifted with 
the power of forming visions of the ultra-sensible ; and 
by this power, when duly chastened and controlled, we 
can lighten the darkness which surrounds the world of 
the senses. There are Tories even in science, who re- 
gard imagination as a faculty to be feared and avoided 
rather than employed. Imagination becomes the prime 
mover of the physical discoverer. Newton's passage 
from a falling apple to a falling moon was at the outset 
a leap of the imagination. In Faraday the exercise of 
this faculty preceded all his experiments. . . . With- 
out this power our knowledge of nature would be a 
mere tabulation of co-existences and sequences. — Tyn- 
dall. 



60 



III. 

The Studio and the Artist. 

To-day we cross the threshold of the 
soul's studio. To this chamber we do not 
allow freedom of access to our most inti- 
mate friends. There sits the artist secretly 
working out the ideals of our inmost desires 
and ambitions. Some designs he has 
wrought to completion; others remain but 
dreams of beauty whose end cannot be 
foreshadowed. Some designs are already 
become historic; others but sketch the 
outlines of distant hopes. This secret 
workman, whose vision outruns the eye, 
and whose hearing catches sounds too at- 
tenuated for the ear's apprehension, this 
genius who makes his visions and dreams 
the ideal and inspiration of life, is the im- 
agination. Therefore we call this faculty 
the artist of the soul. 

To an unconscious degree are we debtors 
to the secret workings of imagination. 
Ours is a prosaic age, in which the genius 

61 



62 Chambers of the Soul. 

of this faculty is apt to be discredited, and 
the spirit of wonder and admiration must 
give way to the investigator, analyst, and 
critic. Imagination may be allowed a little 
scope in idle moments. It may sing the 
songs of our childhood and recall the 
dreams of youth. It may turn the album 
where hopes lie faintly sketched, and give 
us visions beyond the narrow limits where 
circumstances hold us prisoners. Like the 
camera obscura, imagination may catch 
the distant scene, and stimulate the heart 
worn weary with discouragement. The 
soldier by the camp-fire, the sailor on the 
far-off seas, the tourist in foreign lands, 
and the exiled convict in prison cell may 
through the imagination run away home, 
look upon the familiar fireside, see the well- 
known forms, and hear the music of love's 
voices. But there is nothing real about it. 
We strike the earth with a thud of con- 
sciousness, and awaken with a sigh that all 
was a dream. A few vocations of life may 
turn imagination to practical purposes. 
The art of poet, painter, and musician may 
beguile us of reality when we become 
weary with the strain. We submit our- 
selves to the genius of their fancy, but all 



The Studio and the Artist. 63 

the while we hold in subconsciousness the 
sense that we are playing with things un- 
real. Their rhymes, sketches, and scores 
are a phantasmagoria, permitted as an in- 
dulgence. But, if we would achieve 
success in life, we must not allow imagina- 
tion to cheat us with its air-castles, and 
prevent our pursuing the stern prose of ma- 
terial facts. 

This is a materialistic age, dealing with 
the physical as the bases of all things. 
That which we may apprehend through 
the physical senses, that which has size 
and avoirdupois, which we can measure and 
weigh, analyze and control, that is real. 
Ambition for success must be content to 
abide on that level, and not fly into the air 
of fancy. It is a realm in which reason is 
the voice of authority. Anything that can- 
not be searched to its origin, traced through 
its sequences, predicated in results, may 
not receive the mark " sterling." Imagina- 
tion deals with too many things that can- 
not be focused into tangible reality; and 
therefore it stands discredited as a practical 
factor in a practical world. Its power is too 
hypnotic, suggesting the absurd and im- 
possible. Only the fool follows its guid- 



64 Chambers of the Soul. 

ance. The wise man credits nothing 
which he cannot prove, accepts nothing 
that he cannot take into the laboratory 
for examination. He enthrones reason 
as the censor of all things, from whose 
verdict there is no appeal. Lord of the 
past, critic of the present, prophet of 
the future, reason must be chief counsellor 
to the soul. Though its vision be near- 
sighted and its voice inflected with in- 
terrogation points, its manifestoes will need 
the less revision, and so prove safe. Let 
reason be invested with such glorious 
sovereignty, and it becomes an easy matter 
to shunt imagination off to a side-track, re- 
serving it for excursion trips into fancy- 
land during leisure moments, but never to 
be trusted with treasures of reality on the 
main line. 

Despite this, imagination still survives. 
It lives in secret, fearing ridicule. It does 
not display its imagery in public; but in the 
soul's studio this artist faculty is steadily 
working to counteract dejection, discour- 
agement, and despair. It is usually opti- 
mistic, and with its looking on the bright 
side of things and discovering new possi- 
bilities it heals depression, stimulates hope, 



The Studio and the Artist. 65 

and inspires renewed effort. Imagination 
is one of the most practical forces in the 
world. Could we look behind the energies 
that move in human history, we should find 
that its nerve forces and sinews are supplied 
by those things upon which imagination 
feeds. As individuals we should be slow 
to admit that wonderful panorama that 
passes through our minds, or to confess 
that we take these visions in any serious 
sense. Yet a little meditation will soon 
convince us how far-reaching and practical 
is the influence of this imagery in that it 
secretly moulds our hopes and ambitions. 

A faculty everywhere so potent cannot be 
excluded from Christian experience. Some- 
where it must find place and play. Relig- 
ion neither dwarfs nor destroys a faculty. 
Christianity engages to bring every faculty 
to its lawful and highest development, give 
it the best field for exercise, and use it for 
the accomplishment of the soul's salvation. 
Imagination is the mind's eye. By it we 
look through the things which are seen 
with the physical eye at the things seen 
with only the mental vision. 

Science takes account of actual facts, and 
its deductions and conclusions are supposed 



66 Chambers of the Soul. 

to set forth the accurate knowledge con- 
cerning facts. But the course of science 
has not always been smooth and even. Its 
triumphs have been so great that sometimes 
error has sheltered itself under the prestige 
of its reputation for truth; and no matter 
how wide of reality a theory might be, if 
it could only secure the label "scientific," 
there were those who gave it unquestioned 
credulity and support. Even science has 
been imposed upon until its history is also 
punctuated with "revisions," and some of 
its theories exploited as "heresies." But 
we have no quarrel with achievements of 
scientific investigation. We only plead 
that in the light of its revisions and heresies 
we, too, may exercise a reasonable scepti- 
cism until its suppositions find a focus in 
facts. 

For its triumphs in discovering and for- 
mulating truth science is a great debtor to 
imagination. The passage quoted from 
Professor Tyndall at the beginning of this 
chapter is unequivocal in its admission. If 
we follow the track of its suggestion, we 
shall find that our knowledge of astronomic 
science rests upon the discoveries of imag- 
ination, chemical science roots itself in the 



The Studio and the Artist. 67 

atom, seen only with the mind's eye, and 
that physical philosophy builds upon that 
attenuated thing called ether. The founda- 
tions of our scientific structures have been 
gathered and laid by imagination. The 
historian makes a loom of this faculty, and 
upon it he weaves the yesterdays into his- 
tory. The statesman compels mental vision 
to focus existing conditions and tendencies, 
and so forecasts the to-morrow. The 
scientist views the ultra-sensible, and by 
imagination brings the far-off facts to the 
crucible of human reason. Reason has no 
function until imagination brings the grist 
to the mill. 

What may not the imagination accomplish 
when guided and strengthened by the Holy 
Spirit, as it climbs over the trellis of divine 
revelation into the spiritual realm ? Eye 
hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath 
it entered into the heart of man through 
any physical sense what God hath prepared 
for them that love him. But he hath re- 
vealed them unto us through the Spirit, 
who, searching all the deep things of God, 
reflects them into our soul through the 
imagination. By physical search we may 
not find out God; but with the soul's sight 



68 Chambers of the Soul. 

we may know where to find him, and come 
even unto his seat. With this faculty we 
may look upon the high and lofty One who 
inhabiteth eternity, and in as far as it hath 
pleased him to reveal the mysteries of his 
will we may apprehend the counsels of 
eternity. 

But before this faculty may journey into 
the mysteries of spiritual truth it must be 
emancipated from the dominion and tyranny 
of sin. If its power for beholding right- 
eousness and serving truth is great, its 
power for conjuring with evil and serving 
sinful lust is no less. The sinful soul 
alienated from the life of God, having the 
understanding darkened, walks in the van- 
ity of a diseased and corrupt imagination. 
Knowing God, but refusing to glorify him 
as God, neither giving thanks, the imagi- 
nation is given over to vanity, and the sense- 
less, irresponsive heart is darkened. Then 
this noblest faculty becomes a maddened 
steed harnessed to sin, driving furiously in 
the energies of evil lust and passion. Strive 
as it may, its visions and inspirations all 
come to vanity and vexation of spirit. 
Sinners in whom the darkened imagination 
works find that in the realm of knowledge 



The Studio and the Artist. 69 

they profess themselves to be wise and be- 
come fools, who are ever learning and 
never able to come to the knowledge of the 
truth. In the world of power they imagine 
a vain thing. They try to break the bands 
of God, and loose his cords, while he sitteth 
in the heavens and holds them in derision. 
For pleasure they hew themselves broken 
cisterns that cannot contain water, and miss 
the real fountains of delight. Perverted, 
the sinful imagination fills the mind with 
unclean images, the memory with unholy 
reflections, and the heart with base desires. 
Designed to be the noblest faculty of the 
soul, it becomes the very genius of corrup- 
tion and evil. 

In the soul's new birth the imagination is 
brought under the control of the Holy 
Spirit and reclaimed for God. The same 
act of grace that operates upon the con- 
science and co-operates with the will moves 
upon the imagination, and enlightens the 
eyes of the understanding. Henceforth it 
is the organ with which the pure in heart 
see God. But does not such a statement 
confound imagination with faith ? And 
what is faith ? Without attempting any 
exhaustive definition, it may be said to have 



70 Chambers of the Soul. 

at least three elements: A knowledge of 
God revealed to us only through the soul's 
sight or imagination, an assurance born of 
knowledge and experience, trust and hope 
growing out of knowledge and assurance. 
Imagination, then, is the pioneer faculty of 
faith. It goes abroad in the realms of truth, 
and enriches the soul with visions of God. 
Then old things pass away; behold, all 
things become new. Things once counted 
a loss are counted a gain, while all the 
ideals and ambitions of the flesh are cast 
out, and God is enthroned. 

But now this faculty must be strength- 
ened with might by his Spirit. To this end 
it must feed upon the word of God. Let 
us understand; the Scriptures of God are 
not given us for mere formal reading or 
even diligent memorizing. There is a letter 
of the word which may remain dead and 
dull. Only when that word catches fire in 
the imagination is it made spirit, life, light, 
and food to the soul. A little observation 
will convince us that the very form of the 
Scriptures is designed to appeal to the 
imagination. A cold, logical, critical dis- 
secting of the Scriptures will never reveal 
their power, life, or beauty. Their very 



The Studio and the Artist. 71 

style is that of parable and imagery, luring 
the imagination into the hidden and glo- 
rious mysteries of grace. 

The natural man struggles to solve some 
of the enigmas about him; with labor he 
slowly works his way through physical 
law to understand the existing order of 
things; he strives after some semblance of 
morality, and vainly wonders whither all 
things tend. But, alas! he is baffled with 
mystery, burdened with a wounded con- 
science, fearful of a judgment, hopeless of 
destiny. Beside him is the spiritual man 
with imagination illuminated and strength- 
ened. He reads the story of creation, and 
it takes fire, and within the burning bush 
he beholds God creating and upholding all 
things by the word of his power. The 
imagination strengthened by the Spirit sees 
more in a glance than the natural man sees 
with a century's experimentation. He 
reads the story of the Nazarene; but it 
catches fire, and within he sees the Son of 
God, the Ancient of days. The martyrdom 
of Calvary kindles in his soul, and he sees 
the altar of the sin-offering and the burnt- 
offering, and finds peace with God. Imag- 
ination follows the vanishing Christ, and 



72 Chambers of the Soul. 

sees him sit at the right hand of God, ex- 
alted as Lord and Saviour; it enters every 
day into the holiest of all, and looks upon 
the heavenly High Priest, contemplates his 
beauty, knows its standing as purged of 
sin and accepted, outruns the ages, and 
beholds the new heavens and the new 
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
And the visions seen with this eye of the 
soul become the inspiration of the spiritual 
life that is hid with Christ in God. 

It is utterly beyond us to predicate the 
wonders that may break upon the vision of 
the soul through an imagination renewed 
by the Spirit. We have hints of it in the 
experiences of the men who by faith 
walked with God and beheld his glory. 
But with the course of the ages and the en- 
largement of revelation we have such in- 
creased material that none would venture 
to prophesy what unexampled glories of 
spiritual truth will yet focus themselves in 
the Christian mind. 

" While I was musing, the fire kindled." 
As we meditate on the word of God, let us 
pray that we may be strengthened to behold 
wondrous things, that our souls' sight 
may be so strengthened by a Spirit-guided 



The Studio and the Artist. 73 

imagination that we may see through the 
seen into the unseen, through time into 
eternity, through the temporal into the 
abiding. With this faculty we may ascend 
into heaven and find God there, or descend 
into hell and know he is there. We may 
take the wings of the morning and dwell 
in the uttermost parts of the sea, and find 
we are not beyond the everlasting arms, 
nor out of the hollow of his upholding 
hand. We may set the Lord before us, and 
live in the assurance that we shall not be 
moved. And, as we journey through the 
pathway of life, imagination will behold in 
every situation, circumstance, experience, 
accident, and incident a burning bush 
where we may hold fellowship with the 
eternal God. Thus this artist of the soul 
will garnish the studio with divine ideals of 
beauty and holiness, and awaken that hun- 
gering and thirsting after righteousness 
which shall be satisfied and realized when 
we awake with his likeness, conformed 
unto his image. 



IV. 

THE MUSIC-ROOM WITH ITS OR- 
CHESTRA. 



We need some ever-present, ever-welcome influence 
that shall insensibly tone down our self-asserting and 
aggressive manners, round off the sharp, offensive angu- 
larity of opinions, warm out the genial individual hu- 
manity of every unit of society. . . . Rampant liberty 
will rush to its own ruin unless there shall be found 
some gentler, harmonizing, humanizing culture, a sweet 
reverence for something far above us, beautiful and 
pure ; awakening some ideality in every soul and often 
lifting us out of the hard, hopeless prose of daily life. 
We need this beautiful corrective of our crudities. . . . 
We need to be so enamored of the divine idea of unity 
that that alone shall be the real motive for the assertion 
of our individuality. Thus we catch the rhythm of a 
holy march, and grow attuned to a believing, loving 
mood, just as the body of a violin, the walls of a music- 
hall, by much music-making become gradually seasoned 
into smooth vibration. — John S. Dwight. 



76 



IV. 

The Music-Room with its Orchestra. 

« Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the 
same love, being of one accord, of one mind," " giving 
diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
peace." — -5"/. Paul. 

There are some people who have no ca- 
pacity for abstract thought. The technical 
workings of the law cannot enlist their in- 
terest. Literature may be to them an arid 
waste, and even the poet's skill cannot fire 
their imagination. The art of the painter 
finds little or no latent discernment that 
might be cultivated into an appreciation of 
a master's genius. Their taste seems to 
dwell on a dead common level, and circles 
in the small eddies of monotony. Yet, 
when they come into the music-room and 
catch that mystic weaving of sounds into 
melody and harmony, immediately their 
whole nature is aglow with pleasure. Even 
so many minds may evince but little inter- 
est in the mysterious operations of con- 
77 



78 Chambers of the Soul. 

science, will, and imagination. They exer- 
cise these faculties, but care little about the 
how or why. The science of psychology 
has no fascination for them. But focus 
their attention upon the emotional nature, 
and at once you have a theme which every 
shade of mind can grasp. The emotions 
lie immediately behind all the activities of 
life, and there all the harmonies or discords 
of our daily experience have their origin. 
For this reason there is no chamber of the 
soul that possesses a greater charm of in- 
terest than the music-room. 

An orchestra is made up of a number of 
musicians who perform upon various in- 
struments. These instruments differ in 
many respects. Some are constructed of 
wood; others are made of brass. Some 
make their tones by the vibration of strings, 
others by vibration of columns of air. 
Every instrument has its unique quality of 
tone differentiating it from all others. Each 
instrument has also its peculiar register of 
compass of sound, some playing in the up- 
per octaves, such as the violin, piccolo, and 
cornet, while others range in the lower oc- 
taves, — the bassoon, bass viol and trom- 
bone. The musicians may play at different 



The Music-Room. 79 

intervals and with a varying number of 
notes to the same measure. But certain 
qualifications are demanded of all perform- 
ers alike before there can be the production 
of a symphony. Each musician must prac- 
tise, learn, and know his own part; he 
must play it in strict co-operation with all 
the rest; he must key his instrument to the 
concert pitch; and he must play according 
to a uniform time, under the guidance of a 
common leader. 

The brotherhood of the human race 
should be a symphony of fraternal good 
feeling. A man's association with his 
neighbors ought to be in accord. Especially 
ought the fellowship of a Christian with his 
brethren to be in the unity of the spirit and 
the bond of peace. "Behold how good 
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
together in unity." The endless variety of 
characteristics possessed by Christians is no 
hindrance to harmony. It is the very pos- 
sibility for it. Every man has some unique 
quality which makes him differ from all his 
fellow beings. It may be a peculiarity of 
temperament, or some specific gift. And 
these are possessed amid a great variety of 
circumstances and conditions. But, if they 



80 Chambers of the Soul. 

all find exercise under the supervision and 
constraint of the Holy Spirit, they will make 
for harmony and peace. But the constant 
tendency and danger are to break away 
from control. 

The jangle of factious strife that swept 
over the Corinthian church came through a 
lack of individual subjection and spiritual 
co-operation. Every individual boasted some 
personal preference. One championed Paul, 
another Apollos, a third Cephas, and a 
fourth Christ. Each man had his own little 
score and was playing in his own self- 
chosen time. When they came together, 
each one had a psalm, had a doctrine, had a 
revelation, had a tongue, had an interpreta- 
tion. They had all the instruments of a 
spiritual orchestra in that they came behind 
in no gift. But they had lost the concert 
pitch of the divine will, and were jarring 
along in discord and schism. Therefore 
Paul rebuked them sharply, and admonished 
them all to speak the same thing, that there 
be no divisions, but that all be perfected to- 
gether in the same mind and judgment. 
For nothing but discord can grow out of 
the over-emphasis of individuality. 

When a musician finds himself out of 



The Music-Room. 81 

tune, what is his remedy ? Assume that he 
is right and all others are wrong ? Should 
he press a little harder, play a little faster, 
continue a little longer in the effort to bring 
all others to adopt his particular pitch and 
time ? Certainly not. He must call a halt, 
and bring his instrument up to the concert 
pitch. And, when he falls to playing again, 
he must begin not at the place where he 
fell out, but at the place whither the orches- 
tra has come by that time. But in our as- 
sociation one with another it sometimes 
happens that, when we drop below the 
pitch and lose the key, we press a little 
harder upon our own will, and play as loud 
as possible with our individual judgment. 
And by this over-insistence on our personal 
preference and singular desire we become 
the cause of discord, pain, and strife. If, 
therefore, we would contribute to the sym- 
phony of Christian peace and joy, we must 
see to it that we are "like-minded, having 
the same love, being of one accord, of one 
mind," " kindly affectioned one to another," 
" submitting ourselves one to another in the 
fear of God," "all subject one to another 
and clothed with humility." 
In the music-room of the soul there is a 



82 Chambers of the Soul. 

harp of many strings. Each string has its 
particular tension and is designed to pro- 
duce its own peculiar tone. If all the strings 
are kept at the right tension, they will 
strike musical harmonies into life's conduct 
and speech. Their vibrations must prove 
melodious or dissonant according as the 
several tones are true or false. This harp is 
the emotional nature, and the strings thereof 
are the various feelings and affections. 
From these all our activities take their im- 
mediate rise. Action is the impulse of feel- 
ing; therefore feeling dominates the world 
of action. Whatever may be the quality 
and tone of a feeling, its vibration into word 
or deed will be exactly the same. 

We can readily explain our actions one 
towards another by the feelings that con- 
strain us. You meet a friend upon the 
street, and speedily find yourself greeting 
him with unaffected cordiality and affection. 
A little further on you meet another indi- 
vidual whom you know just as well, and 
perhaps have known for a longer time. 
But your manner towards him is congealed 
with constraint. Your acknowledgment of 
his salutation is so frigid with formality 
that it borders upon snubbing contempt. 



The Music-Room. 83 

How do you explain this revolution of de- 
meanor? You say simply, you feel very 
differently towards these persons. The one 
you appreciate, admire, and love; therefore 
your affection breaks out in hearty kindli- 
ness. The other you suspect, dislike, or 
detest ; and immediately your aversion 
clothes itself in a suited bearing. Upon 
leaving the first individual and meeting the 
second your whole emotional nature under- 
went a revulsion. A difference of feeling 
made all the difference in the manifested 
conduct. Whatever may be the character 
of our bearing and manner, it cannot be 
other than the same as the emotional na- 
ture at the same instant. Every change 
of deportment argues a change of emotion. 
If, therefore, the feelings are keyed to the 
notes of bitterness, covetousness, envy, 
malice, anger, pride, and their kind, we 
may expect nothing but discord when they 
are strummed into action. If, on the other 
hand, we witness the manifestation of 
kindness, humility, sympathy, patience, 
good will, and their like, we conclude that 
underlying them are feelings of the same 
nature. Our feelings flow in our actions, 
each after its kind. 



84 Chambers of the Soul. 

Likewise the force or feebleness of an 
action will depend upon the strength or 
weakness of the energizing emotion. A log 
on the surface of the stream will drift at the 
same rate at which the depth of the waters 
is moving. So, if the unseen currents of 
passion are strong and turbulent, the ener- 
gies borne on their tides will be correspond- 
ingly intense and violent. If their secret 
motion be constant and tranquil, their mani- 
fested activities will be equally regular and 
peaceful. And no change can take place in 
the one without a similar modification in 
the other. 

A little meditation upon the correspond- 
ence between feelings and actions will help 
us determine our exact relations with the 
people with whom we mingle daily, and 
our attitude towards them. Analyze the 
nature of your bearing towards different 
people, and you will find a great diversity 
of characteristics. Answer yourself as to 
the why of this wide disparity and you will 
find your only answer in the caprice of feel- 
ing. Do we flatter ourselves that we are 
making no discord amid the rush of life's 
duties ? Then we have only to examine 
the quality of our secret emotions, and con- 



The Music-Room. 85 

elude that our words and doings wear the 
same color and sound. The major chords 
of the heart will not make minor chords in 
conduct. If, on the other side, we discover 
the energies of life discordant, if our words 
are rasping with criticism, our looks lower- 
ing with resentment, our judgment biased 
with prejudice, and our actions unbalanced 
by partiality, it can only be because the 
heart is strung with feelings of the same 
quality. We can no more obtain good 
words and right acts out of wrong feelings 
than we could get a refreshing drink out of 
the stagnant waters of a malaria-breeding 
pool. We need, therefore, to give earnest 
heed that the strings of this emotional harp 
are kept at a tension accordant with the will 
of God. 

When this orchestra of human emotions 
has lost the concert pitch, there are four 
things that may be done with the feelings. 

First, they may be allowed the play of 
unrestrained freedom. In this mood their 
motion will be in the force of erratic wilful- 
ness. When ungoverned feelings rush into 
the moulds of speech, and unbridled emo- 
tions issue in the torrent of turbulent utter- 
ance, they are like ships without rudders, 



86 Chambers of the Soul. 

driven and tossed with a storm. As when 
the burning lava rushes down the mountain- 
side, carrying destruction, so are the lawless 
feelings that hurry forth bluntness, anger, 
envy, and resentment. And it is simply 
amazing on what shallow pretexts we 
venture to excuse our harshness of speech 
and boorishness of manner. Organic con- 
stitution, the laws of heredity, circum- 
stances, conditions, environments, and arbi- 
trary limitations are all made the scapegoats 
of our failure in this direction. To plead a 
nervous temperament is deemed sufficient 
to avoid blame for peevishness and irasci- 
bility. But when was there ever a special 
license granted to peculiarity of disposition ? 
Where is there any warrant for supposing 
that any circumstances could secure immu- 
nity from obligation ? The very complexity 
of a sensitive temperament is a capacity for 
close harmony. Such a delicate and per- 
ceptive organization is capable of great 
good if it is sincerely consecrated to God. 
Only when such a disposition becomes the 
instrument of carnal self-pleasing does it jar 
and spoil the music of life. And this is 
always the case when feelings flow un- 
restrained. 



The Music-Room. 87 

Second, we may disguise the real nature 
of our feelings. Humiliation may be crush- 
ing within, yet with a proud mien we may 
seek to cover our secret chagrin. The heart 
may cherish a most envious feeling against 
a successful rival while outwardly veneering 
it with the grace of conventional congratu- 
lations. We may profess to rejoice at an- 
other's good fortune and triumph, while 
envy and covetousness embitter all within. 
There is no feeling of vice in the soul that 
may not be disguised by affecting the sem- 
blance of an opposite virtue. Thus feelings 
may constantly parade in the borrowed 
robes of conventional politeness, and to a 
great degree hide their ill nature and de- 
formity under forms of good breeding. 
But let us not forget that we are tempted to 
hide only those feelings which happen to 
fall under the ban of common censure; and 
secretly to foster that which we studiously 
seek to disguise is straight-out hypocrisy. 

Third, we may curb and repress the con- 
tention of ill feeling that clamors for in- 
dulgence. As feeling after feeling comes to 
the gateways of our nature and seeks to go 
abroad, we may challenge each to stand and 
discover its character and identity. Upon 



88 Chambers of the Soul. 

learning the real quality and tendency 
thereof we may in all honesty turn them 
back and deny them the liberty of action. 
We may bind them with enforced silence 
and inertia. At this point we ought care- 
fully to distinguish between the repression 
of feeling and the dissembling thereof. 
Repression not only understands the evil of 
the feeling, but judges it evil, condemns it, 
and seeks to mortify it by opposing, while 
hypocrisy recognizes its noxious nature, 
but does not reprove and disappoint it. 
Repression is a virtue, whereas dissem- 
bling is a vice. 

Fourth, the whole emotional nature may 
be revolutionized and become attuned to 
the good pleasure of God. Magnanimity 
may stifle envy, kindliness expunge rancor, 
liberality conquer avarice, forbearance dis- 
place anger, and love dethrone and banish 
every form of carnal affection. And, when 
the heart is restrung with those desires and 
moods that respond to God's Holy Spirit, 
the strings may vibrate with freedom; their 
sound will but augment and swell the sym- 
phony of grace. 

We may predicate, then, that action 
which springs from bad feeling produces 



The Music-Room. 89 

discord, action which disguises real feeling 
makes the false chord, action checked by 
restrained feeling effects a broken chord, 
while action from revolutionized feeling 
makes concord. The first is like an active 
volcano, whose eruptions threaten disaster; 
and the lava of impulsive speech and ca- 
pricious conduct sets on fire the whole 
wheel of nature. The second is like the 
volcano that does not emit fire or smoke at 
the crater, but undermines with deceptive 
force, and works disaster with sudden 
earthquake. The third is like a slumbering 
volcano, whose confined force may break 
forth in unsuspected moments. The last is 
like an extinct volcano, whose fires have 
died out. The lava that once burned its 
way with baleful effect has cooled and be- 
come the fertile soil of rich gardens where 
grow the fruits and flowers of a Spirit-filled 
life. Among these our best judgment 
must surely approve the last as the ideal and 
true. 

Since the emotional nature plays so prom- 
inent a part in the round of daily doing, we 
should carefully weigh our responsibility 
with reference to this particular domain of 
the soul. If we are chargeable for our out- 



go Chambers of the Soul. 

ward conduct, it must follow that we are 
accountable for those unseen forces which 
shape and energize manifested life. We are 
liable to make short shrift of our impulsive 
conduct by saying, "I can't help it." We 
meet people with certain temperaments who 
have a way of exasperating us, and before 
we know it or can be put on guard we are 
swept away by some feeling, and find our- 
selves off the key and discordant. 

Even with our best effort and honest en- 
deavor we sometimes fail. Have we not 
sought to prepare ourselves for an interview 
or gathering that we knew would prove 
very trying ? Imagination has conjured up 
the scene in advance, and we have deliber- 
ately planned a certain line of friendly con- 
duct; we were resolved upon a cordiality of 
manner, sobriety of speech, and poise of 
bearing. But, alas, something went wrong. 
Some unanticipated provocation or slip un- 
hinged our best resolves, and before we 
were aware our new feelings of kindness 
melted into air, and all the old emotions of 
antagonism rushed out to do battle in re- 
sentment. How often after such experi- 
ences have we had the uncomfortable feel- 
ing of being ground between the millstones 



The Music-Room. 91 

of self-accusation and self-vindication! At 
such times we are constantly beset with the 
temptation to fling away the sense of re- 
sponsibility with the phrase, "I can't help 
it." 

The moment that self is no longer before 
the bar of judgment, and we are free to es- 
timate the deportment of other men, we 
recognize that responsibility attaches to 
feeling and action alike. We praise the 
men who hold their feelings in balance and 
control, and we censure those who allow 
their passion to master both judgment and 
will. But neither compliment nor censure 
has any place where there is no responsi- 
bility and power of control. Thus the very 
tribunal which we daily set up with regard 
to our neighbors and friends affirms the 
moral accountability of man for his feelings. 
When we open the Scriptures of God, we 
find the same obligation predicated. The 
commandment of the Lord is that we put 
away all anger, wrath, malice, bitterness, 
envy, and hatred, while we are to put on 
kindness, meekness, gentleness, compas- 
sion, and love. We are to cultivate the 
peerage of emotion, and utterly abandon 
the entire plebeiance of carnal feelings. 



92 Chambers of the Soul. 

On the experimental side, we know the 
possibility of doing this. Who of us has 
not at some time in life nurtured a feeling 
from infancy to maturity ? It was so frail at 
the beginning that with but little prayerful 
effort we might have torn it out of the 
heart. But the memory indulged it, and 
the imagination magnified it until it grew 
from a shadow to a substance. On the 
other hand, have we not by prayerful per- 
sistence succeeded in denying and starving 
a giant of ill will until it diminished and 
died a dwarf? Therefore the will should 
link arms with the conscience, and go often 
and freely into this music-chamber of the 
soul. The conscience whose ear is sen- 
sitive to harmony or discord should desig- 
nate every feeling that has lost the concert 
pitch, and those that do not properly belong 
to the orchestra of Christian affections. 
And, as Pharaoh reinstated his butler while 
he hanged his baker, so the sovereign will 
should establish every feeling that is spir- 
itual and tends towards Christlike ac- 
tivity, bring every affection that has lost the 
key-note back to the true pitch, and exe- 
cute every carnal desire and impulse that 
tends to confirm the dominion of sin. 



The Music-Room. 93 

How may the music-room of the soul be 
kept in perfect harmony? How may the 
discordant feelings be made to accord with 
the will of God ? The very first requisite is 
a belief in the possibility thereof. A bal- 
anced judgment will undertake only what 
it believes possible. Many a man has been 
obliged to abandon an undertaking that has 
proved impossible, but he did not think it 
so when he began the work. Faith in a 
possibility is the inspiration of vigorous ef- 
fort. With this stimulant, men will under- 
take all practical and many seemingly im- 
practicable schemes. But lacking this con- 
fidence they will not even enter upon that 
which might be easily done. In religious 
experience more than elsewhere belief in 
the ability to do and attain is the assurance 
of faith that presages success. We must 
believe, then, that every string of human feel- 
ing can be brought to a tension and kept 
where it will vibrate nothing but musical 
melody. 

Then how ? Immediately behind our 
emotions lie our thoughts. They are the 
musical scores which the feelings repro- 
duce. If their notes are not right, there can 
be no music. Any error of composition 



94 Chambers of the Soul. 

there will be sure to sound itself in a dis- 
cord. Realizing the necessity of having 
purity of thought, St. Paul wrote to the 
Philippians, " Whatsoever things are true, 
whatsoever things are honorable, whatso- 
ever things are just, whatsoever things are 
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what- 
soever things are of good report; if there be 
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 
on these things." Thoughts sustain the 
same relationship to feelings that feelings 
do to actions. The mind is the moulding- 
room of the emotional nature, and thoughts 
are the springs where feelings take their 
rise. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is 
he. If, therefore, we would feel right, we 
must think right. Whoever lays hold upon 
this secret of controlling the thoughts of the 
mind has gained the key of life's mastery. 

Responsibility penetrates this inner cham- 
ber where the mystic web of thought is 
constantly weaving the pattern of character. 
Here, again, the Scriptures are emphatic 
and clear. They command us to be "cast- 
ing down imaginations, and every high 
thing that is exalted against the knowledge 
of God, and bringing every thought into 
captivity to the obedience of Christ." We 



The Music-Room. 95 

must learn to subdue the erratic motions of 
thought and hold them in control. We 
must rein in the vagaries of imagination 
until discipline makes it our perfect servant. 
When the mind becomes subject to orderly 
thinking, then the will may command 
the thoughts and make them ministers of 
holy living and consecrated service. There- 
fore this revolution must take place in the 
antechamber to the throne-room, where 
thoughts are the nearest courtiers that wait 
in attendance upon the sovereign will. 

Let me suppose here is a person towards 
whom I feel uncharitably. 1 do this because 
in my secret soul I entertain a wrong feel- 
ing towards him. But that feeling is dor- 
mant so long as he is absent from my 
thought. It is the thought that awakens 
the feeling, and the nature of the feeling in- 
dicates the nature of the thought. I must 
begin, then, with my thought concerning 
him. In the quiet moment of meditation I 
allow the imagination to bring him before 
me. I resolve that I will try to form an un- 
prejudiced judgment of him. I begin to 
make allowances for things that had before 
escaped me. I reckon with his tempera- 
ment, circumstances, advantages, and con- 



96 Chambers of the Soul. 

ditions. I discover certain patent and more 
latent qualities of good within him. And 
so I come secretly to think better of him 
and wish him well. Added to this I learn 
to pray for his good and prosperity. Now 
all the time that my thought is undergoing 
this change a like revolution is taking place 
in my feelings. When next we meet, my 
manner will be cordial and my utterance 
with kindliness. I have recovered the con- 
cert pitch, and may contribute my part to 
the symphony of Christian fellowship. 

But, should this method prove too diffi- 
cult and complicated, there is another and 
simple course along the same line; namely, 
"Set your mind on the things that are 
above." It is still in the region of the mind 
where the harmony must be effected. With 
the thought focused upon Christ there 
comes a light in which evil is ashamed to 
show itself. "In his bright beams which 
fall on us, fades every sinful thought." It 
is impossible to indulge sinful thinking so 
long as consciousness centres upon the Lord 
of glory. The psalmist said, " I have set 
the Lord always before me." That made 
him strong, steadfast, unmovable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord. Heav- 



The Music-Room. 97 

enly-mindedness must expel carnality in 
every form. No emotion of resentment, 
anger, or revenge can find a place in the 
mind that is occupied with Christ. He him- 
self sets in motion the current of holy 
thought and brotherly love ; and, when these 
flow with power, thoughts and feelings of 
a sinful nature cannot make headway 
against the stream. "The peace of God 
which passeth all understanding garrisons 
the heart and mind," keeping the fountain- 
heads of life pure and sweet. And who 
cares for the criticism of the world or the 
slight of a servant, while enjoying the favor 
and smile of the King? Haman was not 
angered by Mordecai's refusal to do him 
homage until he left the presence of the 
king. And never can the storms of passion 
and sin sweep over our hearts and minds 
until they have wandered away from the 
things above, where Christ sitteth at the 
right hand of God. 

" Great peace have they that love thy law ; 
They shall have no stumbling-block." 

When an instrument of many strings is 
to be tuned, one central note is first brought 
to the correct tone. Then all the others are 



98 Chambers of the Soul. 

regulated in harmony with that one. 
Among all the affections of the heart the 
central and primary one is love. If that be 
true to God, all the rest will be harmonized 
by it. Love will write all the melodies and 
chords of the divine will on the score of our 
secret thoughts. Love will carefully attune 
every feeling into unison with the purposes 
of grace. And, as we need to be daily 
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the 
inner man; namely, in conscience, imagina- 
tion, and will, even so must the music- 
chamber be 'thrown open to his visitation, 
that the orchestra of the affections may be 
established with grace. The love that is to 
pervade all our life and service is not the 
impulsive, uncertain, erratic feeling of affec- 
tion that sometimes rises within us. It is 
the love which out of the deliberate choice 
of God is justified before reason, established 
in the will, and humbly accepts the responsi- 
bility of pleasing God. To possess this 
love, we must present ourselves before the 
throne of grace, and recollect and appreciate 
the love of God towards us, which is of a 
like nature. As we meditate upon his love, 
he sheds the same abroad in our hearts; 
and, as it flows over heart and mind, the 



The Music-Room. 99 

entire nature is brought into accord with 
him, and the orchestra is heard to discourse 
peace, joy, and good-will. 

The musician comes into the drawing- 
room and seats himself at the piano. He 
strikes a few chords, and rises with disap- 
pointment. His musical ear is offended. 
His genius and skill were ready to pour 
themselves forth, but the instrument was 
useless for his purpose, being wild and out 
of tune. The children may strum its dis- 
cordant strings to the annoyance of all 
within hearing, but no musician will waste 
two minutes in trying to produce a sym- 
phony upon it. And, if the harp of the 
soul is not attuned with love and grace, the 
Spirit of God will not spend his genius and 
power thereon. Selfish ambition may strike 
a thousand discords from it, but God's 
Spirit must pass on to some heart ready for 
his touch. Let us see to it that we are not 
only vessels meet for the Master's use, but 
also instruments always ready for the ora- 
torio of glory to God and peace among 
men. 

L-ofC. 



V. 

THE HALL OF RECORDS, AND THE 
LIBRARIAN. 



There is one book in the Bible the burden of which, 
it might almost be said, is, Do not forget. Life is lost 
by forgetting. Times and seasons go over the head of 
the forgetful as they go over the head of the beasts in 
the field; God's providence is thrown away upon them, 
and they never win the heart of wisdom. ... To have 
no memory for our own past is not only moral levity ; it 
is ingratitude to a love which at every step in our 
journey has beset us behind and before and laid its 
gracious hand upon us. Faith in providence is the 
consecration of life ; it binds us to reverence and re- 
sponsibility in the present, and to a devout recollection 
of the past. — Robertson Nicoll. 



V. 
The Hall of Records, and the Librarian. 

" Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord 
thy God hath led thee." — Moses. 

" Remember Jesus Christ."— St. Paul. 

In our meditation upon that mysterious 
palace called "the inner man" we shall 
spend the last hour with the librarian in the 
hall of records. This is a kind of corridor 
in the soul, upon which all the doorways of 
all other compartments open. Every con- 
scious moment of life finds these doors 
open, and through them the faculties of the 
mind are continually passing in and out. 
At all times it is a very busy place. 

This chamber is a kind of storeroom 
where all the treasures of life are garnered. 
Here are chronologers continually recording 
the facts and associations connected with 
our personal history, even while it is in the 
making. The artist comes here, and has 
his portfolios in which he files away his 
sketches and paintings. Some of them are 
103 



104 Chambers of the Soul. 

drawings illustrating the immediate fore- 
ground of passing history, while others are 
visions only in the far-off perspective of 
prophecy. The judge searches this hall of 
records for the evidences of our moral con- 
duct, and upon the testimony here recorded 
he pronounces our conviction or vindica- 
tion. The musicians gather here to select 
the scores composed in other days, from 
which they awaken again the emotions of 
pain or pleasure. The sovereign visits this 
chamber to read the archives that tell the 
history of his dynasty; and the reading will 
make him either rejoice at his increased 
power, or lament over his enfeebled incom- 
petency. All the faculties go to and fro, 
some storing away newly gained acces- 
sions, some only referring to the abundance 
already accumulated. 

The name of this wonderful chamber is 
memory. It is the great reference library 
of the soul, equipped with secretaries who 
carefully register, locate, and catalogue 
everything committed to their trust. Mem- 
ory has the function of treasuring up all 
the scenes, acts, words, and sounds of daily 
life. In after days consciousness may come 
here and recollect the details of personal 



The Hall of Records. 105 

history. Memory will turn over the pano- 
rama of its scenes and re- utter every word 
with its exact quality and inflection of tone. 
It is stenographer, phonographer, and pho- 
tographer all in one. 

This faculty is most closely allied with all 
the practical activities of daily life. Were 
it not for the conserving power of memory, 
the work wrought by the other faculties 
would unravel as quickly as woven; their 
treasure would be lost as soon as gained. 
If the function of memory were to cease 
entirely, the mind would become intellectu- 
ally bankrupt and the whole man fall into a 
wreck as a sequence. 

Not only does memory serve us by co- 
operating with the mind when it is engaged 
in the effort to recollect the past, but it has 
become so habitually alert that in a thou- 
sand instances it brings forth the requisite 
knowledge before we elect to call for it. 
How many things we have learned to do 
mechanically! The knowledge which we 
gained by studious effort and the activity 
acquired by diligent practice are easy to us 
now, just because memory has conserved 
what we have gained. 

In the routine of daily doing we enact 



106 Chambers of the Soul. 

many things that seem to involve no reflec- 
tion of the mind or volition of the will. 
Consciousness may centre upon something 
altogether different. Then how do we per- 
form these mechanical acts, which one time 
required the co-operation of thought and 
will? Simply because memory has learned 
the science of co-operating with the reflec- 
tive and volitionary faculties, until in these 
spontaneous activities it seems able to use a 
part of their power without their knowing 
it. How much effort of thought or will do 
we employ in rising, dressing, eating, walk- 
ing? Yet these things were learned only 
through the severity of much practice, but 
now we have become disciplined to a me- 
chanical performance of them. What we 
call habit is the automatic working of 
memory, utilizing some of the stores that 
have been committed to it. 

If the nervous system of the body were 
to fall into a complete paralysis, the entire 
man would sink into decay and death. 
Not a muscle would move. The lungs 
would forget to heave. The heart would 
cease to contract and expand. The eye 
would no longer see, nor w r ould the ear 
hear. Sensation and activity would be 



The Hall of Records. 107 

dead. It is the nervous system that con- 
verts mental into physical force, and binds 
the several powers of mind and body into 
one. So, if we were to blot out the mem- 
ory, the automatic sequences which have 
established themselves in the mechanical 
activities of habit would become discon- 
nected, and we should be unable to go 
through the ordinary routine of daily life. 
Humanity would stand like a mass of 
idiots, lost and helpless amid the handi- 
work of its own genius. Memory is the 
carrying power of the soul. Without it the 
mind would be like a sieve, letting all that 
ever came into it leak out. 

Memory is, moreover, the dreamland of 
the soul. As the mind turns over the pages 
of our yesterdays, the functions of our 
physical faculties become suspended. 
Thought is transported to the far away, 
and the eye no longer holds in view the 
scenes about us, while the ear allows all 
conversation to drift by unnoticed. "Ab- 
sent-minded," is the comment of those who 
chance to catch us in this state. That word 
exactly describes it. The mind has taken 
wings and flown away from the prosaic 
present. Somewhere in this enchanted 



io8 Chambers of the Soul. 

chamber it has lighted upon a distant 
scene. 

There are ten thousand avenues in mem- 
ory by which consciousness may journey 
back among the scenes long since passed 
away. The prisoner who retires into this 
mystic room finds himself loosed from his 
fetters; the walls recede, and he goes forth 
to rove awhile in the liberty of other days. 
The soldier forgets the roar and shock of 
battle, and by a hidden path visits his home. 
He has no official leave of absence, yet 
without violating duty he mingles with 
loved ones far away from the scenes of 
strife. The exiled explorer finds memory 
a rapid transit whereby he may run away 
from his trials, dangers, and hardships, and 
visit the fireside and family which he left 
miles and months behind him. Even from 
the dull routine of the trivial round of pro- 
saic duty, memory offers many excursions 
into the fairy-land of exceptional days with 
their rare experiences. 

We may sigh with a quasi-disappoint- 
ment when consciousness lands us again 
among the dull and tedious surroundings of 
actual existence, just as we sometimes sigh 
and lament when the summer holiday is 



The Hall of Records. 109 

spent and we must needs return to the task 
of toil. Nevertheless, we have drawn in- 
spiration from this relaxation, and are the 
better able to pursue the race on the common 
level. This ability to leap miles in an in- 
stant and years in a moment by the aid of 
memory is a great alleviative amid the 
grind and friction of tiresome obligation. 
Happy is the man whose memory abounds 
with visions of purity and sounds of peace. 
He will find in this chamber the compensa- 
tions that will offset much of the weariness 
of life. 

But the treasures of this storeroom are 
not always of such a nature that recollec- 
tion will invariably convey pleasure and joy. 
Are there not departments here which we 
carefully guard under the lock and key of 
unbroken silence ? Some of memory's im- 
agery we hang up to public view, and in- 
vite the inspection of our friends. But 
other parts of it we hide away in the dark 
recesses, and never permit our most inti- 
mate relatives to look thereon. We enter 
those secluded corners alone, and would 
suffer the confusion of shame, did mortal 
being know what we so jealously conceal 
there. These recondite memories may 



no Chambers of the Soul. 

cause us the pleasure of sinful excitement, 
or sting us with the pain of an outraged 
conscience; but still they are there. We 
would not have some of these hidden 
records brought to the light for worlds. 
Their exposure would be our utter undoing. 
Suppose the visions which imagination has 
stored away here were exposed to public 
view; suppose the phonographs were to 
give out the open utterances and secret 
whispers of speeches that we trust are 
buried away from men; suppose every 
compartment of memory were thrown 
open to every one's view, should we not be 
completely confounded ? 

While memory, then, has its pleasure- 
garden where the fragrance, pageant, and 
music of other days may be revived with 
joy, it has also its chamber of horrors, where 
closets have their skeletons that we fear 
to look upon, and where voices thunder 
from deep caverns, and fill us with dread 
while we listen. There are avenues here 
that we deliberately avoid. We are some- 
times dragged thither against our will, as a 
guilty victim is thrust into a torture cham- 
ber designed to wring from him a coerced 
confession. 



The Hall of Records. ill 

What can the grace of God effect in this 
wonderful chamber of the soul ? If the 
past is irrevocable, can any change take 
place in the faculty whose sole function is 
to perpetuate the irreversible history of our 
yesterdays ? If memory is beyond the touch 
of some renovating power, we may settle 
it that there can never be the experience of 
peace in the soul. If the pleasures of past 
sin survive in the memory, though they be 
as secret as the buried treasure in Achan's 
tent, there cannot be victory in the outward 
life. If the ghosts of our clandestine evil 
cannot be buried, but must ever haunt us by 
unwelcome intrusion, then farewell every 
hope of unbroken joy. If transgressions 
are to live ever in this chamber, and never 
to be transfigured by some transforming 
power, we can never become reconciled to 
living with it. Therefore, if the grace of 
God has within its gift that which brings 
peace, rest, and joy to the heart, it must 
have also some power whereby it can work 
some miraculous change in the soul's rec- 
ord-hall. 

In the moral as in the physical constitu- 
tion of man there are antidotes that neutral- 
ize and counteract the deadly working of 



112 Chambers of the Soul. 

sin, and this specific must find its way into 
memory. The most tremendous event of 
the soul's history takes place when the Son 
of God is admitted to the life and begins 
the work of his salvation. When faith has 
discerned him as the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world, when 
conscience has approved his claim and 
urged his admission, when the will has 
surrendered to and welcomed his sover- 
eignty, the memory must make record of 
this vital circumstance. Imagination, con- 
science, and will together come into this 
chamber which they have filled with their 
doings; and now they erect the cross of 
Christ, with its promise of the forgiveness 
of sin. 

No sooner is this done than a new light 
floods this hall as it did all the other 
chambers of the soul. That light is the 
grace of God, and has a wondrous trans- 
figuring power. Under its light all the sins 
of the past seem to undergo a change. 
Their accusing fingers no longer point out 
our guilt; their voices cease in their cry of 
condemnation; their garments turn color 
from scarlet to white. The cross has be- 
come the sounding-board echoing through 



The Hall of Records. 113 

the memory God's promise, " Their sins and 
their iniquities will I remember no more 
against them." And, as this article of the 
new covenant is heard throughout the length 
and breadth of the memory, our sins, all 
our sins of whatever nature and kind, are 
shot through with the light of his pardon- 
ing grace. They are transfigured by re- 
deeming love, and every one of them is be- 
come the background upon which there 
shines a vision of the glorious Redeemer 
who forgiveth all our iniquities. The ad- 
versary of our souls massed them into a 
thick cloud of condemnation, and made 
them to thunder with accusation and woe. 
The Saviour blotted out this thick cloud, 
and stilled the storm with his " Peace, be 
still." To the redeemed soul memory is no 
more a crypt of iniquity and a vault of 
terror, but a gallery where the smiling face 
of our Redeemer is manifolded as many 
times as there are sins in our lives. 

This birthday of Christ in the soul is a 
red-letter day for the memory. Is there 
such a day on the calendar of your history ? 
If not, then, however deep you may seek 
to bury your transgressions in the grave- 
yard of forgetfulness, "be sure your sin 



1 14 Chambers of the Soul. 

will find you out." But, if Christ be in 
you, hesitate not to fling open every secret 
closet of your yesterdays; his grace will 
make the whole to radiate with glory. 

Memory is frequently found to be a bond 
of fidelity. The youth far away from home 
and amid strangers feels the sudden shock 
of temptation. But the recollection of a 
loved one, and the memory of a faithful 
admonition, instantly create the iron of re- 
sistance, and he passes through the trial 
triumphantly. The pilgrim wearied with 
his journey and almost fainting with fa- 
tigue remembers the waiting hearts at the 
fireside, and finds therein a stimulant for re- 
newed effort. The discouraged slave of 
toil is depressed and haunted with the 
temptation to find rest in a suicide's grave; 
but the memory of dependent lives acts 
like a tonic, and nerves the soul with fresh 
resolution. The memory of a friend will 
surround us with a holy atmosphere; make 
us strong to spurn all that is mean, weak, 
and sinful; and gird us with strength to 
pursue the ideals of perfect and holy living. 
Have we not here some psychologic law 
that offers to put the key of righteous living 
into our hand? If the memory of the 



The Hall of Records. 1 15 

good, though they be but faulty representa- 
tives of virtue, serves to make us strong 
and resolute to be like them, will not the 
memory of Jesus Christ work with like 
potency ? 

The apostle Paul among many admoni- 
tions to the youthful Timothy bids him 
"remember Jesus Christ." In the con- 
sciousness of Paul, Christ was ever present. 
Whatever might be the circumstance, duty, 
or trial, he always recollected Jesus Christ; 
and there was no event in his life from 
which the Lord was divorced by forgetful- 
ness. Therefore he not only saw the 
Christ of God transfigured against the guilt 
of his past sin, but every new circumstance 
and event of history became associated 
with Christ. He was crowding his memory 
with more and better visions of the Christ. 
Paul's world had been blotted out by the 
blinding vision of a persecuted Son of God. 
Then the first vision of his soul was that 
same Son as a Saviour. Henceforth Christ 
was to him the greatest of all realities, and 
interwoven with everything in his life. 
He remembered him as creator amid cre- 
ation, controller amid all changing provi- 
dences, redeemer against the background 



n6 Chambers of the Soul 

of sin, a priest helping in hours of tempta- 
tion. His steadfast thought of the Lord 
was the secret of his life and service ; 
therefore he urges, "Remember Jesus 
Christ." 

In one of the royal galleries of Russia 
there is the portrait of a princess redupli- 
cated hundreds of times. She is repre- 
sented amid the scenes of court life, the 
family circle, the chase, at games, and in all 
the rounds of gayety and duty that might 
occupy the time of one born to royalty. 
But it is always the same face. The Czar 
was so in love with this princess that he 
had her likeness painted into all the circum- 
stances that environed him. So ought we 
to associate Jesus Christ with every circum- 
stance of daily experience. Whatever 
change may take place from hour to hour, 
he should mingle with every detail. This 
is to remember Jesus Christ. And when 
this exercise is persisted in, though it be 
with effort at the first, it will soon become 
both easy and habitual. 

" Practising the presence of God " was a 
very simple rule that shaped the character 
and conduct of some men eminent for 
piety. This single canon was sufficient to 



The Hall of Records. 117 

make them steadfast, unmovable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord. For 
who can sin in the conscious presence of 
God ? So long as the mind is stayed upon 
him the soul is kept in perfect peace. 
Temptations lose their fascination and 
power when Christ is present to the mind. 
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, 
and the pride of life lose their grip when 
the light of his presence shines upon them. 
Associate the Lord with everything, and 
you have safe conduct through life. Every 
vice will be unmasked and every virtue ap- 
pear at its real value. With Christ present 
in our recollection we need never be in 
doubt concerning duty and privilege. We 
walk in the light as he is in the light, and 
our fellowship is with the Father and his 
Son. 

Before sin and Satan can gain any real 
vantage they must secure an absence of 
Christ from the mind. They must put him 
in eclipse, and this they do through forget- 
fulness. Forgetfulness is the atmosphere 
of sin. In God's dealings with Israel he 
rang the changes upon the importance of 
remembering and the dangers of forgetting. 
Forgetfulness lets God slip out of the scene, 



Il8 Chambers of the Soul. 

looses the carnal life, and allows it to dom- 
inate without regard to God. 

There is a practical atheism that is no less 
sinful than theoretic atheism. To live and 
do and talk without any regard to God is 
the practical form of atheism. Though it 
does not deny him existence, it does deny 
him a place in our thoughts, affections, and 
deeds. Forgetfulness secures just this con- 
dition; and therefore it is a sin, yea, a great 
sin opening the way for many other sins. 
In its last analysis, then, remembering Christ 
is the essence of worship, whereas forget- 
ting him is the substance of practical 
atheism. 

When the memory has been cleansed 
through the forgiveness of God, it needs to 
be strengthened and stimulated for his in- 
dwelling and service. 

But how is this to be secured ? Some 
people complain that they have poor mem- 
ories. They find it difficult to retain certain 
forms of knowledge. 

After making all allowances for differ- 
ences that may rise out of hereditary bias 
and subsequent training it still remains true 
that all persons remember some things, and 
remember them very vividly. 



The Hall of Records. 



119 



Memory depends upon impressions, and 
impressions are obtained in two ways. 

First, there is the discipline of effort. In 
this way we memorized the multiplication 
table and the rules of grammar, repeating 
them again and again until they became 
fixed. 

Second, some things we remembered af- 
ter once hearing, because they deeply inter- 
ested us. 

Now, if Christ becomes the one great 
focus point of our interest, to remember 
him will be very simple. If this be lacking, 
we must master the difficulty by drill. 
Memory is simply familiarity, and familiar- 
ity can be secured by persistent discipline. 
It implies work, toil, effort; but these all in 
turn form habit, and habit is the thing made 
easy. 

In the Christian life we have several im- 
portant aids to memory. The Scriptures 
are a revelation to us of the life and purpose 
of Jesus Christ, and by studying them we 
may acquire familiarity with ail that he 
was, is, and yet will be. They reveal 
Christ to us, beget and develop Christ in us, 
and finally transfigure Christ through us. 
And, as we meditate upon the word of 



120 Chambers of the Soul. 

God and assimilate it, the Holy Spirit im- 
presses truth upon our memory; and, when 
the crises of life arrive, he brings to our re- 
membrance sufficient to carry us trium- 
phantly through. Just as with our life in the 
body effort makes its deposit in the mem- 
ory until it works mechanically, so in the 
spiritual life memory treasures all conscien- 
tious effort at doing the will of God, and 
forms those spiritual habits that ultimately 
make the spiritual life spontaneous and au- 
tomatic. 



Our Latest Publications* 

Lincoln at Work* b y wimam o. stodda*d. 

Finely illustrated by Sears Gallagher. 173 pages, cloth, embel- 
lished cover design. Price, $1.00. 

Probably no one is better acquainted with the every-day life of 
Abraham Lincoln than William O. Stoddard, one of his secretaries at 
the White House during the greater part of the war. In a series of 
fascinating and most graphic chapters, Colonel Stoddard pictures the 
gaunt, ungainly young politician, his rapid and marvellous rise to 
power, and that strange life in the White House, so appealing in its 
pathos, its quaint humor, and the profound tragedy that lay under- 
neath it all. The author makes us feel as if we ourselves had been per- 
mitted to sit by the side of the great President in his dark workroom, 
or to be present at his momentous and striking conferences with his 
generals. Many anecdotes are told, throwing a flood of light upon the 
times and the man, and the whole closes with a powerful picture of 
the impression produced by Mr. Lincoln's death, even in the South, 
where Colonel Stoddard was at the time. Mr. Stoddard is an accom- 
plished story-writer as well as a skilful historian, and both qualities 
come into play in making this delightful and important book. 

From Life tO Life* By Rev. J.Wilbur Chapman, D. D. 

200 pages, cloth. Price, #1.00. 

A collection of anecdotes, stories, incidents, poems, and other 
illustrative material drawn from many sources and touching many 
topics. A leading feature of the book is the large number of incidents 
taken from life and carrying their own lessons. The compiler, well 
known as one of the foremost evangelists, gathered the matter for his 
own use from his own observation ; and the choicest parts have been 
selected for this volume. It will therefore be of great interest and 
value to Christian workers generally, whether for their own help or as 
an aid in winning others. 

Doings in Derryville* b 7 Lewis v. Price. 

212 pages, cloth, 60 cents ; paper, 25 cents. 

This story is of a noble young girl who finds herself in one of those 
many country towns which have quite lost their Christianity and 
become almost pagan. The church was closed, Sunday was a lost day, 
worldliness and Satan had full control. 

In a series of wide-awake and stirring chapters, Mr. Price describes 
the organization of a Christian Endeavor society. A Sunday school 
soon follows, and later comes a pastor, who is willing to use his powers 
in meeting the great need, and for love of his country and God do 
what he can to build up the neglected country town. The incidents 
woven into the story are all actual facts which have come under the 
author's own observation. Two beautiful love stories sweeten the 
tale and add to its human interest. 



UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, 
Boston and Chicago* 



The Deeper Life Series* 

A series of daintily bound books upon spiritual themes by the leading 
religious writers of the age. Bound in uniform cloth binding. 
6 3-U by It 1-2 inches in size. Price, 35 cents each. 

The Inner Life* By Bishop John H. Vincent, D. D. 

"A study in Christian experience" which shows 
how the life of the soul is the true reality, and what 
striking results are wrought when the power of Christ 
and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit become the 
controlling forces in a life. 

The Loom Of Life* ByRev.F.N.Peloubet,D.D. 

" The threads our hands in blindness spin, 
Our self-determined plan weaves in." 

"The Loom of Life," and "If Christ were a Guest 
in our Home," which is also included in this volume, 
are two very helpful sketches by the author of that 
well-known publication, Peloubet's "Select Notes." 
Many new and forceful truths are presented, such as 
will give the reader thought for serious consideration 
for many a day. The book abounds in apt illustra- 
tions and anecdotes, in the use of which Dr. Peloubet 
is so skilful. 

The Improvement of Perfection. 

By Rev. William E. Barton, D. D. 

This is not a treatise on the higher life, but is meant 
to help young Christians to a higher life by showing 
what kind of perfection God expects, and how it is to 
be gained, at the same time furnishing an incentive 
to attain it. The aim is practical rather than theo- 
retical, and the style is clear and attractive. 

I Promise* By Rev. F. B. Meyer. 

The book is appropriately called " I promise." Its 
chapters deal with matters of the utmost importance 
to every Christian, such themes as "Salvation and 
Trust," "Winning God's Attention," and "What 
Would Jesus Do ? " In strong, sensible, winsome 
words the path of duty is pointed out, and conscience 
is spurred to follow it. 

UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, 

Boston and Chicago. 



The "How" Series. 

By AMOS R. WELLS, 

7 1-4 by h 1-2 inches in size. Uniformly bound in cloth with illuminated 
cover design. About 150 pages each. Price, 75 cents each. 

How To Work* 

This is a working nation, and yet few among its millions of 
workers know how to work to the hest advantage and with the 
best results. The fundamental principles of wise labor are set 
forth in these chapters in a familiar, conversational style. 
Much of the book consists of actual talks given to young men 
and women starting out in life. " Flittering," " Putting Off," 
"Hurry Up!" "Taking Hints," "A Pride in Your Work," 
" ' Can ' Conquers," " The Bulldog Grip," " The Trivial Bound," 
—these are specimen titles of the thirty-one chapters. The 
book is not didactic, but presents truth in illustrations, so that 
it sticks. 

How To Play* 

The author of this book evidently believes in recreation. 
The very first chapter is entitled, " The Duty of Playing." Sepa- 
rate chapters are devoted to the principal indoor amusements, 
conversation and reading being the author's preferences, and 
also to the leading outdoor sports, especially the bicycle and 
lawn tennis. There are many practical chapters on such themes 
as how to keep games fresh, inventing games, what true recrea- 
tion is, and how to use it to the best advantage. " Flabby Play- 
ing," " Playing by Proxy," " Fun that Fits," " Overdoing It,"— 
these are some of the chapter titles. In one section of the book 
scores of indoor games are described, concisely, but with suffi- 
cient fulness. 



How To Study* 



These chapters, on a very practical theme, deal with the 
most practical aspects of it,— such topics as concentration of 
mind, night study, cramming, memory-training, care of the body, 
note-taking, and examinations. The author makes full use of 
his experience as a teacher in the public schools and as a college 
professor, and the hook is largely made up of talks actually 
given to his students, and found useful in their work. The 
chapters are enlivened by many illustrations and anecdotes, 
and the whole is put into very attractive covers. 



UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, 
Boston and Chicago. 



is wm 



JAN 11 1902 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



